Opinion | Funding cuts to universities will gut college towns

Here in Ann Arbor everyone has game days on their calendars. It's so we know when to avoid driving as 100,000+ fans stream toward the stadium on our small-town roads. But football isn't the only thing that happens at Michigan. The hub of our town's economy, U-M depends on federal funding. 

I live near what's known as the NCRC, the North Campus Research Complex. It is more than a collection of test tubes and white coats wearing lab goggles. The NCRC is known for public-private partnerships, innovation labs, startup incubators, the VA Medical Center, and training opportunities for the nation's future doctors. There are corporate research alliances with Toyota, Ford and more. There's a Google office too, just past the library.

My family moved here for growth opportunities. We'd heard about the top talent who migrate to internationally ranked schools. We want to raise our kids around motivated and curious people, hard workers with global perspectives. All the people we've come to know and love here over the past four years are linked to the university.

In my exercise studio, owned by a U-M nurse, the women working out are U-M students, researchers or professors. The moms from our elementary school live in homes paid for by research or teaching jobs or their partnerships with the university. Corporate landlords enjoy renting to international researchers; national and local construction companies build and repair and expand the industry that is U-M. 

Trump's funding cuts have canceled conferences where my friends were scheduled to present their years’ worth of work; couples whose income relies on government contracts are on stop-work orders, teleworkers are being called back to offices hours from home, without adequate workspace for them. Many don't just fear massive layoffs; they've already been let go. I am getting their texts as they scramble to find something new and a way to provide health care for their kids. 

Like many college towns, ours attracts the best engineers, chemists, social scientists and mathematicians from all over the world. They choose to come here, they choose Michigan. They buy pastries at Zingerman's and veggies at Argo Farms. They watch movies on State Street and drive cars designed in Detroit. 

Once the federal dollars go and projects are cancelled, admin staff laid off, our neighbors will leave for places that offer their families a better quality of life.  If Spain, Ireland or Canada offer a stable job, a work visa, good schools and safe communities, why would they stay here, how could they stay here, in Ann Arbor? This is called brain drain.

I saw this firsthand in 2020 when Trump cut funding to other scientific labs. My best friends had bought a modest home a few blocks away. Suddenly unemployed, they were unable to pay their mortgage. They'd been in the US for 10 years: working, studying, paying taxes and being a part of our community. You don't have to be an economist to understand that we are all connected. When cuts are made suddenly and without warning, we don't only lose jobs, we lose our lives as we know them.  

Workers, once laid off, can't make car payments or afford groceries; people cannot afford to eat out and restaurants close; neighbors pull their kids from our schools and we lose our local tax base; friends move away, they sell their homes, and we all lose. 

Humans live in complex networks, interacting in many ways we often forget to consider. On a given day I might smile at landscapers at our condo; say hello to a person at the gas station or Costco; wave to a crossing guard, the mail carrier or the person checking my ticket at the football stadium. 

There is not a single person in Ann Arbor who will not be impacted by federal funding cuts to the university. This is set to happen across our state and our country, triggering recession or worse. 

Who are the people in our lives who are going to lose out? How is their suffering and uncertainty going to impact us?  What are we going to do about it?