Vol. 71, Issue 11
N o v e mb e r 11 - N o v e mb e r 1 8 , 2 0 2 5
Est. 1981
THE PAISANO
Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio Community
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Professor reflects on repercussions of grant cut by NSF By Marisela Cruz News Editor
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ast spring, UT San Antonio experienced numerous cuts of federal funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. These funds were used for grants and research endeavors across the university. Cuts have continued to significantly affect the university’s faculty and students. The Paisano sat down with associate professor Dr. Crystal Kalinec-Craig from the College of Education and Human Development to discuss the grant that was terminated for her program. Kalinec-Craig is one of many faculty members who have experienced grant termination by the NSF. While partnering with Kentucky State University and Georgia State University, Kalinec-Craig and her colleagues’ program — Noticing and Operationalizing Rehumanizing Mathematics — was awarded an NSF grant in 2023 for $158,787. When the grant was terminated $60,550.74 remained. UT San Antonio had to repay the remaining funds when notified that the NSF would no longer fund the NORM grant. Twelve student candidates for this project would have done data collection and attended conferences for the program NORM. The NORM program grant was designed to be used across UT San Antonio and the two partner universities for the next four years. On April 18, Kalinec-Craig and other faculty members received a letter stating that their grant was terminated and unappealable. Kalinec-Craig explained that the NORM program grant was terminated as it was not aligned with NSF principles and policies. She detailed how the NSF labeled
her grant’s language as in violation of their diversity, equity and inclusion policies. She stated that terms such as “rehumanizing” and “equitable” were used in the grant. The UT San Antonio professor also thought the university being a Hispanic-serving institution may have also been flagged as going against the new anti-DEI policies. “There was no research misconduct; there was no misuse of funds. We spent the next month working on an appeal to try to justify why our grant was still in line with the executive order. We had colleagues review our grant. They said that it was sound, that it was aligned with the NSF principles and mission, and that was sent off in May,” Kalinec-Craig explained. At the end of summer, Kalinec-Craig and her colleagues received another letter stating that the appeal was denied. In turn, they had to return the remainder of the money left from the NORM program grant. “This is probably the first time so many grants have been cut without warning and without any justification, and so the university was really caught off guard,” Kalinec-Craig explained. “It is becoming an incredibly punitive and scary place for professors to be able to even engage in [research], especially at a place like UT San Antonio, where the majority of our students are from Mexican and Central American backgrounds, or at least in my department, that’s primarily who we serve.” According to the NSF website, the statement of priorities was last updated on April 18. When addressing how research efforts should be conducted, the website states that “these efforts should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups. Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF
priorities.” Since the cuts took effect, Kalinec-Craig and her colleagues had to pivot to find another source of funding. The Spencer Foundation allots money to those who had their grants terminated. Kalinec-Craig said that the $25,000 grant helped them for the fall 2025 semester and was divided among the three universities for the NORM program grant. The NORM program will continue into spring 2026 as the Spencer grant assists them in paying the participants and further with funding research. Further plans are still in question for Kalinec-Craig and other colleagues experiencing the same funding shortcoming. Professor of Applied Linguistics Martha Sidury Christiansen, a colleague whose funding experienced the same fate as Kalinec-Craig’s, explained to The Advance Journal that her grant was also terminated. “My mind reeled, not with self-pity, but with the immediate nightmare scenario of my undergraduate research assistants losing their income, my PhD students losing their funding and five years of meticulously planned research collapsing,” Sidury Christiansen explained. Kalinec-Craig warns that these cuts could have unforeseen effects on the academic community at large. “We are on track to losing an entire generation of future colleagues because of these grant cuts,” KalinecCraig said. “The most important part of the story is that we are losing generations of future researchers and future colleagues and amazing scholars that would have done groundbreaking, life changing work, but because the grants have been cut and there are punitive structures in place for even applying for a new grant, it makes it incredibly difficult now to have grants funded without all of these restrictions.”