Summer Update on Our Response to Federal Actions and Orders

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 14:18:47 -0400
federal-orders, president

While campus may seem quiet over the summer, the news from beyond campus has been anything but. I write today with an update on the impacts of federal actions and orders on UMBC and our work to respond to and address these effects.

As has been the case with previous updates, this message is not exhaustive in reporting on every piece of work being done by our core team and others involved in our response; it is meant to share important information in a few areas that we know are of concern to many at UMBC.

Budget Reconciliation

The sweeping legislation called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that was signed into law on July 4 reshapes federal tax policy and spending on a broad scale. Its impacts on higher education will be wide-ranging, both directly and indirectly.

Several of its measures related to higher education (those concerning student financial aid, in particular) do not become effective until July 2026, and so the full impacts of the law will not be realized for some time. What we know generally is this:

Direct impacts include narrowed Pell Grant eligibility and more limited access to student and parent loans, including the elimination of GradPLUS loans for new borrowers, as well as additional fees for international students, faculty, staff, and visiting scholars

Significant cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will affect some members of our community directly, and the financial impact of those cuts on the state of Maryland will have secondary effects on publicly funded institutions such as UMBC

In addition to working to support our students and families who may be facing greater challenges to affordability and access, our aim is to mitigate institutional impacts so that we may continue to advance access to education and support student success.

Meanwhile, the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2026 is not yet complete. Congress is considering various spending bills, as well as President Trump’s proposed budget, all of which, to varying degrees, would dramatically reduce funding for education, research, and more.

Research Impacts

As many are aware, various executive orders and related decisions and actions by federal agencies over the past several months, including early research grant terminations, have already significantly reduced research funding, affecting higher education institutions across the country and limiting their ability to carry out vital research. Some of those actions continue to be challenged in court and/or considered in Congress.

As we have reported previously, UMBC has received about 30 terminations of grants and contracts that had already been awarded to UMBC researchers, with a net loss of about $22 million. This amounts to an annual impact of about $8 million to $10 million, or about 8 percent of our current annual federal research portfolio, for each of the next couple of years. A piece of good news: Over the past month, in response to federal lawsuits filed earlier by the State of Maryland and a number of other states, we have seen a handful of previously terminated NIH and NSF awards reinstated. We are still determining the details of these reinstatements, but we are pleased to be able to continue or resume the work that these grants support.

UMBC is in close contact with University System of Maryland institutions and with leaders in national higher education organizations as we begin to model and better understand the potential impact of a proposal to shift from the long-established negotiated indirect cost model on federal contracts and grants to a new, direct-charge model for most grant-related activities. In July, a coalition of organizations, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, issued a recommendation for a new model to replace the current cost structure used by the federal government. These discussions, which came in response to a decision to cap federal reimbursements at 15 percent, are ongoing.

Of particular concern and focus for UMBC is Goddard Space Flight Center, where almost 300 UMBC research faculty and staff work under cooperative agreements with NASA. Goddard is the epicenter of a partnership with NASA that UMBC has cultivated over the past three decades and that has resulted in UMBC’s ranking in the top 10 in the nation for annual NASA expenditures. NASA Goddard Director Makenzie Lystrup recently announced her intent to leave the agency effective August 1, and several hundred NASA employees have accepted early retirement and resignation offers. The president’s budget proposal, if enacted, would cut NASA funding by 24 percent—disproportionally affecting NASA’s science budgets—and its workforce by a third; the impact of cuts of this scale on Goddard could be devastating.

We are monitoring this changing situation closely and actively advocating for the important work we do at Goddard and elsewhere—I met personally with members of our Congressional delegation in June, for instance. We also are meeting directly with our teams at Goddard and providing direct support for those employees, including information about health insurance options and monthly career development workshops that we began hosting in July.

There remains a great deal of uncertainty regarding federal support of research. No matter the outcome, UMBC will adapt and evolve while staying true to our identity and the public good we provide. We will remain a research institution that advances knowledge and trains scholars across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts, and that leads in critical areas of innovation and workforce needs for our state, our nation, and our world.

Our International Community

We remain concerned about the impact of federal actions on the international students, staff, and faculty who are a vital part of the UMBC community and the global education that we provide. While we know their desire to study at our institution remains strong, delays in visa processing, the travel ban affecting many countries, as well as the political climate more broadly, present significant challenges for current and prospective international students. Based on what we are seeing so far regarding increased visa processing times and decreased visa issuance rates, we expect to see a significant decline in our international graduate student enrollment this fall.

We recently surveyed newly admitted international students regarding the status of their visas. Several students have visa appointments confirmed in August but will likely be unable to arrive until after the first day of classes. We ask our campus community to be understanding of these late arrivals given the difficult challenges these students are facing in order to join UMBC.

The team in the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) has worked tirelessly through the summer to provide valuable support to our international community, including newly enrolled students. Please continue to reach out to them for additional support as needed, and visit our information and resources site frequently for the latest updates on our work in response to federal actions and orders. Among other things, it includes information on international travel, updates regarding visa interview waiver eligibility, resources for international students, and guidance related to the potential for federal immigration enforcement action on campus.

Inclusive Excellence

Finally, I want to address the concern that many have expressed about the Trump administration’s actions and orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—and the impacts of those at many higher education institutions. Among the latest developments was a memo released in late July by the Department of Justice that provided “guidance for recipients of federal funding regarding unlawful discrimination.” Some news outlets reported that this memo declared DEI illegal.

That memo, like the Dear Colleague letter from the Department of Education (ED) that preceded it in February, followed executive orders issued by the White House targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts. Neither the ED letter nor the recent DOJ memo change existing law. Existing laws protect against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin—and so do UMBC’s policies, including our nondiscrimination policy.

Inclusive excellence is not just one of our values. It is core to our identity and to our definition of educational and research excellence. We will not relent in our pursuit of inclusive excellence, nor will we overreact or anticipatorily over-comply. We will, at all times, continue to hold UMBC to the highest standards in adhering to university policies and applicable state and federal laws. The multistate guidance on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility employment initiatives issued earlier this year by Maryland State Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and 15 other state attorneys general, remains a helpful resource and guide for us all.

On behalf of our core team that has met regularly throughout the summer, thank you for your ongoing dedication and support for UMBC and all who comprise this extraordinary community. I am looking forward to the start of the semester and to the opportunity to continue our work together.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby