Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz says he’s returning to Capitol Hill to make the case to lawmakers that federal research dollars shouldn’t be cut.
Guskiewicz spoke about the issue earlier this week in Lansing, when he appeared before the state House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education and Community Colleges.
He said the university gets about half a billion dollars in federal funding every year for research.
“We've got to maintain a strong partnership with the federal government to advance the science,” he said. “Whether it's in medicine or agriculture or business, those communities around the country rely on great public research universities like Michigan State."
The school’s overall research spending is close to a billion dollars. Both the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy have proposed lower caps for indirect research costs at universities; those cuts are currently blocked by judges.
Guskiewicz added it’s unlikely the school would be able to rely on other funding sources if that money gets taken away.
He says the university already receives about $500 million in state funding annually.
“It would be unrealistic to ask [the state] to fill a billion dollars in research funding, but about half of that billion that we bring in is federally funded, and so we again just have to continue to make a strong case,” he said.
MSU’s Faculty Senate approved a resolution last week to form a “mutual defense compact” with other Big Ten schools. Faculty groups at other universities like the University of Michigan have backed similar measures, which could create a shared fund to allow the universities to fight political or legal attacks.
Guskiewicz says the general counsels of the schools will be sharing guidance soon about the proposal.
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