In the wake of the government’s reopening after a 16-day shutdown, affected Harvard affiliates have begun their gradual return to normalcy. Though funding will return for programs like the MIT-Harvard Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and government-funded research projects, many expressed concerns that the impact will not be fully curtailed in the immediate future.
Astrophysics was among the research areas directly impacted by the shutdown. Harvard researcher Mark J. Reid of the Harvard College Observatory said he was relieved by news of the government’s reopening.
Reid, whose research relies on data collection obtained from government-funded telescopes, said he was concerned that a year’s worth of research would go to waste. A crucial data point was two weeks due from collection, and further delay would have made doing so impossible.
“The shutdown point came really close to wasting half a million dollars of National Science Foundation research,” said Reid. “Another two weeks and it would have been very bad.”
Although Reid’s research will continue, he said that it will take a few days for the telescopes to become fully operational. In addition, many researchers are waiting to use the equipment.
The shutdown has also been felt in the classroom as online resources provided by the federal government became unavailable.
Audrey J. Gaskins, a teaching fellow for a class on nutrition and health, said she was forced to find an alternative assignment for her section while the National Institutes of Health website was down. Students doing thesis research through government sources were also unable to access information they needed. Website functions resumed quickly after the shutdown, allowing research to resume immediately.
While the shutdown had little or no direct impact on ROTC training procedure, certain elements of the program were affected.
No new national ROTC scholarships could have been offered during the shutdown, and freshman ROTC cadets who had not finalized their contracts were prevented from doing so, effectively postponing any pay they could have received.
During the shutdown, members of the ROTC program did not receive tuition or stipend payments from the government.
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