March 11, 2013

Colleges Hold Out Hope of Avoiding Steep Cuts in Funds

Colleges Hold Out Hope of Avoiding Worst of Cuts in Funds 1

Will Owens, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

Jian Liu, a professor at the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says he will have to lay off a technician and a graduate student if his research money from the National Institutes of Health is cut.

By Allie Bidwell

Washington

Deep federal spending cuts that both Democrats and Republicans had hoped to avoid were set into motion March 1, as Congress failed to act in time to prevent or postpone the reductions. The $85-billion cut to the federal budget, known as sequestration, leaves colleges uncertain about how reductions in federal appropriations will affect them.

Leading up to the deadline, university leaders and advocacy groups urged Congress to head off the sequester. Both parties introduced bills in a