Katelyn Wilburn, Campus Carrier staff writer

Berry College has just received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant worth $1.2 million – though President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to freeze all federal funding has shook up the grant organizations associated with colleges, including Berry.

With President Trump’s recent inauguration, he signed many executive orders, which includes the federal fund freeze. This order is currently paused by a federal judge, and will not affect student aid or loans, but could affect grant money awarded to schools given to students at a later date.

The U.S. NSF defines their NSF Awards as “the support or stimulation of scientific and engineering research, science and engineering education or other related activities.” At Berry, the NSF grant is used to further support college students financially, but also the faculty, and the Berry community as a whole, furthering educational opportunities for students in STEM. 

“There’s a lot of frustration because we don’t know the timing,” Director of Research and Sponsored Programs Laura Taylor said. “[We are] just waiting for more information and clarity.”

Although unsure of the next few steps, Taylor assures that this will be a waiting game, and to understand that it will take time to understand what the goal is for this fund freeze. Although Berry is a small school, it offers many different grant-based programs, scholarships and opportunities to the students in need and involved. 

“Berry does a phenomenal job of making use of the resources we have [while being] researched focused, incorporating students into undergraduate research,” Taylor said. 

One of the programs funded by the NSF grants is Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM), which is for students with strong academic potential, with financial need to pursue this opportunity. This program awards around seven scholarships every year towards students in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics. 

“It was a five or six month turn around, which is on the quicker end of applying and getting accepted for a grant,” said Chuck Lane, associate professor in physics and technology. “It could easily be a year when doing what we did.” 

Lane and his team put in months of work to get this program, but also years of work keeping it running, as they have to re-apply for the grant every few years. 

Although the grants this year have been awarded, Lane said he doesn’t know what would happen next year, even though funding for the grants has begun again.

The STEMTeach program from Berry College is under the Robert Noyce Teaching Scholarship Program (Noyce Program) from NSF, whose purpose is to take students who are interested in STEM programs and encourage them to consider teaching, with a possible secondary education major. 

“We give them opportunities to spend time in middle schools and high schools, where they get teaching experience and decide if teaching is their passion,” said Jill Cochran, director of teacher education, professor of mathematics education and director of the STEMTeach program.

The STEMTeach program was not funded by a grant for about two years, instead being staffed by volunteers. When they began to work off grants, they were capable of giving out scholarships, along with hiring people for the sole purpose of making this program more sustainable. 

“Students were able to add a second major in education and stay all four years with a scholarship,” Cochran said as she explained the importance of the STEMTeach program. 

With the freeze, Berry has taken accountability and concern for the faculty paid strictly through grant money. 

“I had an interesting conversation with the coordinator that works in the STEMTeach program. Her position is entirely funded by the grant,” said Cochran. “She came to me with some concerns that she would get fired or put on leave because of the freeze. I appreciated the fact that Berry stepped in to pay her salary until things get sorted out.” 

Cochran further explained that this could be the case for a lot of people involved in STEMTeach. Although some could afford to volunteer their time without a stipend, others worked for Berry full-time and couldn’t continue without financial needs being met. 

Although the fund freeze has been paused, the cuts the government may make are still being processed. 

“Just remember it’s a long game,” Taylor said. “So we just have to wait and see, be as patient as we can then adapt where we can. I feel like Berry is very good at that, which is a benefit of being a smaller school. I think we’re a tiny bit more agile at adapting to changes in the landscape.”