University alumni gathered in Washington, D.C. Monday night to hear from President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 at the JW Marriott Hotel. According to one alumnus present at the event, around 1,200 people attended.
During his remarks, Eisgruber discussed his worries about diminished funding for academic research, especially in the sciences.
The Atlantic has reported that President Donald Trump’s administration has not made research in the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a priority. Although Congress ultimately approves the budget, if Trump’s proposals are not modified, these agencies could see significant cuts to research funding.
“There’s tremendous concern” about cuts to science funding, Eisgruber said at the event.
“It would be an extraordinarily damaging thing . . . if we don’t continue to fund basic research,” Eisgruber added, according to an alumnus present at the event. He added that without that funding, scientists could potentially leave the United States because “if it doesn’t happen here, it’s going to happen somewhere else.”
Assistant Vice President for Communications Daniel Day wrote in an email that although the president has submitted his budget proposal for funding requests, ultimately the budget appropriations are up to Congress, and that Congress frequently makes “decisions that differ significantly from what the President proposes.”
He added that, based on current reactions, this pattern will be repeated this year.
Day explained that federal funding plays a critical role in “enabling Princeton and other universities to conduct cutting-edge science and provide support for the graduate students who will become the leading researchers of the next generation.”
Day said the University will advocated strongly for funding levels that allow colleges and universities to continue to achieve their educational missions.
Additionally, when the administration proposed its budget last month, The Science Coalition – of which the University is a member – issued a statement. The Coalition attested that the “skinny” budget “breaks from longstanding bipartisan recognition that federally funded basic research and related scientific discoveries are an important driver of the U.S. economy, creator of jobs and essential to a prosperous future for our nation.”
The statement further expressed considerable concern that this budget will “jeopardize U.S. leadership in science and endanger a generation of new knowledge, scientific breakthroughs, and innovation.”
According to the Coalition’s website, the group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of the nation’s leading public and private research universities dedicated to sustaining federal funding for basic scientific research. The coalition was established in 1994.
Eisgruber also said that he hopes there will be another residential college “down the road” in addition to the residential college that is currently planned to be built next to Poe Field, according to an alumnus present at the event.
The event was free and alumni could register online in advance. The event is part of a series of all-alumni events Eisgruber has held periodically during his three years in office. Gatherings take place around the world with the last event being held in London in March.
Associate News Editor Abhiram Karuppur contributed reporting to this story.
This story has been corrected to clarify the federal budget-making process.
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