Nobody Knows - At UC-SD or Elsewhere

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Is my research grant about to get cut? Will I have to lay off staff? Why am I in the dark about this? Anxious questions are dominating conversations at UC San Diego, where scant updates from campus leaders have left an information vacuum in the weeks since the school learned it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

Chancellor Pradeep Khosla and his staff have posted messages about the matter on a school website but have mostly spoken in generalities, referring readers to federal websites that are also light on specifics...

The San Diego Union-Tribune spoke with 30 faculty, administrators, students and staff about how the school is coping with the prospect of losing upward of $150 million in NIH funding meant to help cover overhead costs in research, along with other money. Most were loath to speak publicly, worried about antagonizing school officials or drawing attention from the Trump administration. But nearly everyone the Union-Tribune spoke to said, in one way or another, that they want the school’s leadership to start providing clear, timely, useful information about the cuts the school faces...

The lack of information has led some faculty and students to describe the atmosphere at UCSD in bleak terms. “On campus, the energy is gone,” said Dr. Davey Smith, director of infectious diseases. “It feels like that moment when a patient gets the news of a terminal illness. Biomedical research is dying. What does that mean for new cures? My career? The university? I have no idea. I have empathy for the university on this. I’m often finding out about cuts in my area before they do. Things are happening so fast.” ...

Full story at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/03/30/whats-in-store-for-ucsd-with-campus-leaders-largely-mum-faculty-and-students-are-on-edge/.

There is - maybe - a buried lede in this story:

"The UC Board of Regents is expected to announce a new president in May, two UCSD faculty members say."

Does that mean a candidate has been chosen? Or does it just mean that since President Drake is leaving at the end of the academic year, May would be the last full meeting of the Regents to announce something before he is gone? Nobody knows.