With the ongoing government shutdown threatening millions of Georgia Tech’s federal dollars, the Midtown Atlanta school is bracing for financial impact.
It announced that if the shutdown continued past Monday, it was prepared to “significantly limit” certain purchases “to help slow expenditures and preserve cash.”
“While we remain hopeful that the U.S. government shutdown will end soon, it is a fluid situation and we need to begin to slow spending to preserve cash and maintain essential campus operations,” chief financial officer Kim Toatley said in a Friday news release.
Like other major universities, much of Georgia Tech’s research is funded through federal grants. But instead of being delivered in a lump sum, those federal awards are typically doled out in a series of payments over time. Georgia Tech says the shutdown is delaying those payments, which represent more than $100 million of the school’s monthly expenses.
Uncertain when those delays will end, the school expects to “implement mitigation strategies … to help ensure business continuity during this shutdown.”
The strategies listed do not include personnel cuts. But it will be limiting its spending on consulting services, “major contracts (and) purchases,” as well as new job offers and nonessential travel.
Georgia Tech did note, however, that additional measures could be taken, “especially if the shutdown continues into November.”
A government shutdown means federal workers deemed “nonessential” are furloughed. Some of those workers may operate systems that researchers use to receive their next round of funding.
“If an agency determines that the individuals that manage those systems are not considered essential, then those portals shut down and no additional funding moves forward,” said Joanne Padrón Carney, chief government relations officer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
While that doesn’t mean research needs to stop, Carney said researchers may “have to look to their institution to maybe receive bridge funding to hold them over until the shutdown concludes.”
It’s unclear if other Georgia universities will implement similar measures.
In late September, Emory University said the initial impacts of a shutdown would be limited. A prolonged shutdown, however, “could slow research progress, create backlogs and potentially lead to funding gaps in ongoing projects.”
“While we have coordinated with potentially affected programs across campus to prepare, many uncertainties remain — especially regarding how long a shutdown might last,” the private Atlanta university said.
Days before, the University of Georgia said it was developing a “phased action plan” to safeguard federally sponsored research. “The plan encompasses contingency strategies to manage the inability to draw down awarded funds should this situation arise,” UGA said.
Georgia Tech said it is committed to continuing its research “to the degree possible, given resource constraints.” Its leadership team will be monitoring the school’s cash reserves as the shutdown continues.
“Georgia Tech is taking a thoughtful, conservative but principled approach to how the Institute will spend resources to help us weather this shutdown and limit the effect on our students and our mission,” said Toatley.
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