Grant cuts delay grad school plans for Chicago State University STEM students

By: Julian Crews, Alonzo Small

CHICAGO (WGN) — Chicago State University administrators and faculty are fighting to restore benefits for students upended by the loss of federal research grants, potentially putting their educational aspirations on hold.

With the government shutdown ending earlier this month, it doesn’t help Chicago State University’s science, technology, and math (STEM) students, as the Trump administration’s cuts to federal education grants for minority scholars dealt a devastating blow to CSU students. 

CSU junior Daisy Hernandez was working as a research assistant through the university. The 26-year-old biology major stated that federal aid helped with tuition, rent, and food. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January of this year, however, forcing the National Science Foundation to terminate hundreds of research grants, totaling nearly $800 million, allotted to predominantly black institutions like Chicago State University.  

CSU president Zaldwaynaka Scott lamented the changes being forced on the university from Washington.

“We have cut off so much opportunity,” Scott said. “Stipends and research opportunities and opportunities to engage with peers at other institutions, those opportunities are gone now.” 

The move is forcing hard-working CSU students such as Hernandez to delay applications to grad school due to the loss of grant dollars from long-running initiatives, such as the Lewis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in STEM, putting things on hold for students who can least afford it.

“That grant has been on this campus for 30 years,” Scott said.

University officials say 61% of Chicago State undergraduates are first-generation college students and 53% come from families with incomes below the poverty line. The diverse student body is 70% African-American students, 30% LatinX, white, Asian, and international students, with the average undergraduate age of 32.

WGN-TV reached out to the White House requesting comment, but has not yet heard back as of this publication.