In an effort to advocate for more funding for the National Science Foundation, UF President Kent Fuchs invited Congressman Ted Yoho to UF.
Yoho visited UF on Friday morning to learn more about the NSF-funded research projects.
Fuchs, who is one of the members of NSF’s Science Board, said UF received about $51,315,000 in NSF funding last year. He said there are about 378 active grants at UF under this program and 62 active NSF Graduate Research Fellows.
Fuchs said the goal of the conference with Yoho was to educate elected officials about the importance of the NSF. At the conference, about six students and six faculty members displayed their research projects for Yoho.
“This agency is not mission-focused, it wants to make discoveries of science that will have an impact either in understanding the world we live in or in the economy,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs said an increase in funding will help the nation become competitive in research.
“I think we don’t have enough imagination to figure out what could possibly happen if there was even more funding,” he said.
Yoho said it’s time to push for more research and development funding. He said China is investing heavily in research, and he expects them to get ahead of the U.S.
“The research you’re doing, make it long-term,” he said to the students. “Our country is depending on you.”
One graduate student asked Yoho about the recent tax plan, which will require graduate students to pay taxes on tuition waivers as income, according to nprEd.
Christopher Clukay, a UF anthropology doctoral student, said he wanted to voice his concerns to the congressman.
“The NSF covered me well enough where I will be one of the lucky few,” he said. “It will hurt me on the tax plan, but it won’t hurt me that much.”
The 26-year-old said he was worried about other graduate students who cannot afford the costs associated with the new plan.
“Most grad students I know can’t do that, so it’ll result in grad students dropping out nationwide,” he said.
In the conference, Yoho said the condition is not yet final, and it may be removed. Clukay said he was unsure of how he felt about the congressman’s answer.
“I feel like he wants to do something and if he had total control, it would be OK, but I feel like I’m not sure he’s willing to go against his party leadership over it,” he said.
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Congressman Ted Yoho and UF President Kent Fuchs discuss the process of the National Science Foundation conference before it begins. Fuchs invited Yoho to visit UF on Friday.
