As the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its debt looms, the ongoing government shutdown has sent federal research efforts into uneasy hiatus. The shutdown has stalled the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health, two major research agencies. It has already damaged some significant research operations. For one, the NSF has been forced to suspend any research activities in Antarctica deemed inessential to property preservation or short-term human safety. Long-term human safety is another matter, given what scientists think Antarctica’s ice sheets can tell us about climate change.
Colleges and universities remain the most vibrant research centers in the U.S. As we observed in a previous editorial, the NIH is the largest funder of research at the University. The University garnered nearly $106 million in NIH funds in fiscal year 2013.
So it was with good reason that a coalition of higher-education interest groups chose to take a stand against the government shutdown last week. Six major groups representing higher education called for a nationwide teach-in. Instead of directing their attention toward lawmakers, the groups recommended that colleges and universities engage in conversations and lectures focused on government processes and budget policy.
The coalition of education groups — the American Council on Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the Association of American Universities and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities — argued that universities had a part to play in resisting the acceptance of government dysfunction as a “new normal.” Its letter suggested framing the ongoing shutdown as a teachable moment.
The letter from the six higher-education groups appeared on Oct. 9. Now, a week later, the budget impasse is more urgent. On Thursday, the Treasury Department will not be able to borrow any more money. The government will then have to pay its bill with the $30 billion in cash it has on hand.
The ongoing debt struggle does not make the groups’ ideas outdated. Rather, it is more important than ever to take their message to heart.
The education groups’ letter insisted that colleges and universities have the ability — and the prerogative — to change attitudes. Specifically, the groups seek to challenge the “growing resignation of the American people” to inevitable governmental dysfunction. To fight this fatalism, the letter said, we must renew students’ interest in democracy and promote conversations about what our government should do.
The education groups’ letter offers an insightful diagnosis of today’s political climate. It also functions as a demonstration of what colleges and universities can add to a democratic society.
Our government, the letter argues, “is most effective when it embraces open discourse, bipartisan cooperation, and compromise” — things currently in short supply on Capitol Hill. By calling on colleges and universities to talk about the debt crisis in respectful and productive ways, the education groups offer a way for higher-education institutions to respond to the shutdown in the short term: through vigorous conversation. The letter also hints at a long-term approach: by teaching students to take an interest in politics and giving them the necessary tools for difficult conversations perhaps we can reduce political crises of this kind in the future.
Conversation will not solve all the world’s problems. But in a democracy, conversation should go a long way. The current debt standoff is not a problem that conversation cannot solve. Rather, the impasse derives from a breakdown in the way politicians — and political factions more broadly — talk to each other. The crisis is as much about the limits of conversation as it is about the limits of federal borrowing authority.
The letter does not explicitly call on Congress to perform a particular action. Nor does it point fingers or ascribe blame to one political party or the other. But it is, slyly, a vigorous argument for the worth of universities, whose operations are currently being stymied by the shutdown. The letter holds that universities are distinctively situated to foster talks that incorporate conflicting viewpoints. Universities are places where thoughtful conversations can take place. They are also places where people learn to have such conversations. Supporting universities, according to the letter, is to support a different approach toward politics — an approach founded on dialogue and consensus, rather than manipulation and maneuvering. By focusing on universities as sites of change, the letter stakes a claim on higher-education institutions as breeding grounds for a better democracy.
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