The federal budget cuts to the Department of Education could be affecting the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. On March 11, the U.S. Department of Education had announced plans to cut their staff by 50%. This was followed by President Trump signing an executive order that would dismantle the entire department. At a board meeting on March 20th, Arwen Helms, a Carrboro High School graduate and UNC student, spoke at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. This is where students and community members are able to speak about potential budget cuts that they deem as threatening to eliminations in language programs across their district. The Chief Communications Officer at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools said the district had received $11,725,893 in federal assistance during 2024. Of that assistance, $5.05 million had come from the Education Department supporting Title I, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Career and Technical Education. Language programs have already been shifting, cut, or moved, and parents are left wondering what classes their children will be eligible to take.
A new Instagram account called Uncquirks is serving as a digital scrapbook of on-campus life at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. There is quirkiness across campus that ranges from Squidward-shaped snowmen in the winter, possums in trash cans, and unicycles made from Jordan’s. This Instagram account posts a wide arrange of quirks found across campus, which has been carried on for centuries. Their Instagram bio reads “quirky since 1789” showcasing that the fun has never stopped. Anyone can submit photos of quirks around campus, and can possibly be chosen for posting. Until recently, the creator of this account has remained anonymous, but has been revealed as Katherine Verm, a UNC senior who is a double major in English and Economics. The idea started as an inside joke between friends her freshman year, and it inspired her to grow the page in hopes of reposting what other students began finding around campus. Verm is not sure what will happen to the page after she graduates, but for now, it is a great way to put a smile on the faces of UNC students.
On Thursday, Mehmet Oz, a Penn graduate, was confirmed by the US Senate to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The announcement on April 3 follows President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s November appointment of Oz, who has an MD from the Perelman School of Medicine and an MBA from Wharton in 1986, as the leader of the organization. Along party lines, Oz was approved 53-45, with two senators not voting.
CMS oversees the administration of the federal Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance programs on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Oz will oversee a $1.5 trillion organization that offers health coverage to more than 160 million people nationwide in his role as CMS administrator.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially promoted the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” during his confirmation hearing, and Oz embraced it.
“All great societies, all great societies, protect their most vulnerable, and I would argue we are a great people”, Oz said. “With that in mind, I commit to doing whatever I can, working tirelessly to ensure that CMS provides Americans with access to superb care, especially Americans who are most vulnerable, our young, our disabled, and our elderly.”
Oz takes office in the middle of significant shifts at the agency.
A fact sheet issued by HHS states that CMS plans to reduce its workforce by around 300 employees. It is yet to face the massive cuts that have been announced for other HHS agencies, which are expected to reduce its staff by 20,000.
Significant Medicaid cuts and the enforcement of additional work requirements have been topics of discussion in Congress. Oz expressed support for job requirements at his hearing, but he would not say if he supports the reduction.
“It doesn’t have to be going to a job,” Oz said. “It could be getting an education. It should be showing that you want to contribute to society.”
Oz has established himself as a well-known television personality. Oz became a professor at Columbia University and a cardiothoracic surgeon after graduating from Penn. He hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a syndicated talk show, from 2009 to 2022, during which he made unsupported medical claims.
Then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat Oz, the Republican candidate for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats in 2022. Oz sided with Trump during his campaign and made several appearances at MAGA rallies.
***
UA Redirects Funds to Student Groups After Budget Cuts
In order to reallocate funds for student organizations for the upcoming academic year, Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly called a Special Budget Meeting on April 2.
Following a 5% reduction in the UA’s allocated funds from the Provost’s Office, changes were revealed on Wednesday evening. According to College senior and UA President Ria Ellendula, Penn is making a “proactive and preemptive” effort to “cut funding by a certain percent” as part of the funding cuts that have been proposed by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Student Affairs.
Penn may be subject to an endowment tax that is unprecedented and “ranging anywhere from 5% to 40%” according to Ellendula. Consequently, the administration at Penn implemented a 5% reduction in funding for every department, including the funds that the Provost’s Office had allocated to the UA.
At the meeting, UA members and other participants voiced concerns about student organizations who are already struggling financially and asked about the possibility of using the approximately $170,000 in reserve funds.
“We have talked to Katie Bonner, who’s the Executive Director of the Office of Student Affairs, and she said that depending on certain variables, there’s a likelihood that we could drain the reserve fund up to 150k,” Ellendula said.
Chandler Cheung, UA Treasurer and a senior in engineering, emphasized the importance of taking into account the reserve fund’s possible future needs as well as the unprecedented nature of the financial cuts.
“We don’t know how long these cuts will last, and the Provost’s office doesn’t know what’s going to happen,” Cheung said. “So I wouldn’t recommend draining the entire reserve fund just for this short-term need now.”
The proposed budget cuts were presented by financial representatives from MERT, the Student Activities Council, the Social Planning and Events Committee, and other organizations. Each speaker was followed by a quick Q&A session.
In the budget reallocation plan, SPEC funding was reduced by about 7%, or $83,350, with $15,000 taken out of the organization’s concerts talent category, which contributes to the annual Spring Fling.
According to a chart shown during the conference, the SAC would also be cut by about 2%, or $32,000.
The Nominations and Elections Committee suggested reducing its funding by $4,500, which would represent a 49% reduction from the organization’s initial budget.
“We are cutting about half of our budget, it hurts to say,” an NEC representative said. “But we recognize the importance of this. This is an unprecedented situation, and we’re willing to make some of these sacrifices.”
MERT intends to completely eliminate its Modernization Fund, which was previously allocated $1,700, and reduce its Equipment and Supplies allocation from $12,300 to $11,750. The change results in an overall budget cut of $2,250, or about 12% of their initial budget.
With a $1,000 decrease from the Freshman Events Fund, a $7,000 cut from the Sophomore and Senior Events Funds, and a $6,000 cut from the Junior Events Fund, the four Class Boards intend to reduce their budgets by $21,000.
“It’s important to notice that there are denominators and numerators here,” UA Speaker Leo Solga said. “It looks as though the sophomore and senior [funds] are cutting about the same. But when it comes to percentages, it varies widely. There’s an effort to preserve senior spending capability due to Feb Club and other such traditions.”
In order to fully defund UA Operations’ $500 budget and UA Steering’s $400 initial allocation, the UA itself reduced its budget by 15%.
The budgets of PennLabs and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education will be cut by roughly 11% and 10%, respectively.
“My understanding is that we have quite a lot of leeway and flexibility [with amendment procedures] because we are not passing the budget,” Solga said. “These are not budget meetings. Technically speaking, what we’re in is an ‘emergency meeting.’”
To complete the revised budget, the UA will hold a second budget meeting on Wednesday of next week.
“Opinion: Homelessness in Syracuse sparks need for unconventional reform” by Saimun Uddin is an opinion piece where the writer explains the rise of homelessness and how it is becoming a problem that should not be ignored. Uddin is able to get his point across in a number of ways but one that sticks out is the statistic he used towards the beginning of the article, which is, “Since 2021, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Onondaga, Cayuga and Oswego counties has surged by 150%, according to the Housing & Homelessness Coalition of Central New York. Even more troubling, family homelessness in central New York has jumped by a devastating 192% since 2019.” The reason Uddin used these statistics is because they jump out at you showing you the increase in homelessness. Uddin also elaborates on how there are plenty of homeless people around Syracuse University and it makes a lot of the students feel unsafe and there have been plenty of reports to the Dean about it. There are constant muggings,property crimes, and assault that goes on between these homeless people and it makes Syracuse feel like an unsafe university. To end the article, Uddin provides what he believes to be a potential solution that the University and other people should be trying to work on, “Addressing the crisis means investing in affordable housing, holding negligent landlords accountable, improving safety near our schools and finding new ways to give in a digital world.” https://dailyorange.com/2025/04/opinion-homelessness-in-syracuse-sparks-need-for-unconventional-reform/
“4,000 gather in downtown Syracuse for ‘Hands Off!’ anti-Trump protest” by Harry Kelly is an article that is elaborating on the protest that happened in the city of Syracuse last Saturday. Kelly explains how over 4,000 people gathered in the city to participate in the “Hands off!” protests that are rallies against President Trump’s efforts to limit LGBTQ+ and immigrants’ rights, shutter federal agencies like the Department of Education, and undo climate protections, among others. Kelly also explains how students from Syracuse University were involved in this protest as well, for example Kelly interviews Tyler Toledo, the president of College Democrats at SU, who said he was there to fight for his right to peacefully protest in the first place. Toledo talks a lot about how the students at the university feel, and he also talks about how the majority of the country is upset as well, so something needs to be done in order to change that. Kelly interviews other people as well to get more insight on the protests, but everyone he interviewed has the same opinion as Toledo.
President of Arizona State University Michael Crow proposes a new head turning idea to ASU. In a meeting with the State Press on October 25th, Crow put his idea of AI academic advisors on the table. He believes this idea can provide a more personalized experience for students as advisors would not have to keep track of multiple students at a time. However, Crows ambitions with AI go even further; “Our hope is that we will end up with an… agent-based AI assistant for everyone at some point, that’s what we’re working for”. In January of 2024, ASU partnered with the creators of the very popular site ChatGPT, marking the start of their AI journey, as well as other AI partners; “We’re working with this particular company, which is called FYI.ai and it was invented and discovered and developed by Will.i.am, the creative genius that he is” stated Crow. Students are not completely sold on this idea however, Freshman Jacob Weinstock offered his thoughts; “When you look at a person, there’s just something there that AI just can’t do. It’s all computer learning,” Weinstock said. “It’s learning what to say based on what you said. It doesn’t actually take what you’re saying and put it through its own mind, because it doesn’t have one”.
‘Survival’ from classes: Minecraft server acts as online escape for ASU students
In November of 2024, a group at ASU called The School of Earth and Space Exploration created a new way for students to de-stress. They created a public server for ASU students to join and collabrote in the worlds most popular video game, Minecraft. The server went underway when the group sent out an inquiry on Discord to ASU students asking if a Minecraft server would be a good idea for students, they where met with a resounding yes. Chloe Haramis, a student studying astrophyiscs and event coordinator for TSES offers insight; “The whole idea of doing the Minecraft server was to bring together both online and in-person students where we can interact with each other and play a game”. The Minecraft server has been running for several months at this point and not slowed down. A regular on the server and Mechanical Engineering Major Hayden Ferrell explained the power of the server; “It kept me in contact with a lot of the people … because it was just a way to hang out over break and during finals week with those in SESE”.
12 thoughts on “BLOG-PROJ-WEEK 9”
https://mmcdermott7.uneportfolio.org/week-9/
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025/03/city-chccs-federal-funding-cuts-impact
The federal budget cuts to the Department of Education could be affecting the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. On March 11, the U.S. Department of Education had announced plans to cut their staff by 50%. This was followed by President Trump signing an executive order that would dismantle the entire department. At a board meeting on March 20th, Arwen Helms, a Carrboro High School graduate and UNC student, spoke at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. This is where students and community members are able to speak about potential budget cuts that they deem as threatening to eliminations in language programs across their district. The Chief Communications Officer at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools said the district had received $11,725,893 in federal assistance during 2024. Of that assistance, $5.05 million had come from the Education Department supporting Title I, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Career and Technical Education. Language programs have already been shifting, cut, or moved, and parents are left wondering what classes their children will be eligible to take.
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025/03/lifestyle-uncquirks-feature
A new Instagram account called Uncquirks is serving as a digital scrapbook of on-campus life at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. There is quirkiness across campus that ranges from Squidward-shaped snowmen in the winter, possums in trash cans, and unicycles made from Jordan’s. This Instagram account posts a wide arrange of quirks found across campus, which has been carried on for centuries. Their Instagram bio reads “quirky since 1789” showcasing that the fun has never stopped. Anyone can submit photos of quirks around campus, and can possibly be chosen for posting. Until recently, the creator of this account has remained anonymous, but has been revealed as Katherine Verm, a UNC senior who is a double major in English and Economics. The idea started as an inside joke between friends her freshman year, and it inspired her to grow the page in hopes of reposting what other students began finding around campus. Verm is not sure what will happen to the page after she graduates, but for now, it is a great way to put a smile on the faces of UNC students.
Link to my page: https://ehuggins.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj-week-9/
https://jstevens20.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj/
https://aanthony5.uneportfolio.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=115&action=edit
https://qraducha.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj-9/
https://sbishop9.uneportfolio.org/week-9/
Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Oversee CMS
On Thursday, Mehmet Oz, a Penn graduate, was confirmed by the US Senate to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The announcement on April 3 follows President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s November appointment of Oz, who has an MD from the Perelman School of Medicine and an MBA from Wharton in 1986, as the leader of the organization. Along party lines, Oz was approved 53-45, with two senators not voting.
CMS oversees the administration of the federal Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance programs on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Oz will oversee a $1.5 trillion organization that offers health coverage to more than 160 million people nationwide in his role as CMS administrator.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially promoted the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” during his confirmation hearing, and Oz embraced it.
“All great societies, all great societies, protect their most vulnerable, and I would argue we are a great people”, Oz said. “With that in mind, I commit to doing whatever I can, working tirelessly to ensure that CMS provides Americans with access to superb care, especially Americans who are most vulnerable, our young, our disabled, and our elderly.”
Oz takes office in the middle of significant shifts at the agency.
A fact sheet issued by HHS states that CMS plans to reduce its workforce by around 300 employees. It is yet to face the massive cuts that have been announced for other HHS agencies, which are expected to reduce its staff by 20,000.
Significant Medicaid cuts and the enforcement of additional work requirements have been topics of discussion in Congress. Oz expressed support for job requirements at his hearing, but he would not say if he supports the reduction.
“It doesn’t have to be going to a job,” Oz said. “It could be getting an education. It should be showing that you want to contribute to society.”
Oz has established himself as a well-known television personality. Oz became a professor at Columbia University and a cardiothoracic surgeon after graduating from Penn. He hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a syndicated talk show, from 2009 to 2022, during which he made unsupported medical claims.
Then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat Oz, the Republican candidate for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats in 2022. Oz sided with Trump during his campaign and made several appearances at MAGA rallies.
***
UA Redirects Funds to Student Groups After Budget Cuts
In order to reallocate funds for student organizations for the upcoming academic year, Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly called a Special Budget Meeting on April 2.
Following a 5% reduction in the UA’s allocated funds from the Provost’s Office, changes were revealed on Wednesday evening. According to College senior and UA President Ria Ellendula, Penn is making a “proactive and preemptive” effort to “cut funding by a certain percent” as part of the funding cuts that have been proposed by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Student Affairs.
Penn may be subject to an endowment tax that is unprecedented and “ranging anywhere from 5% to 40%” according to Ellendula. Consequently, the administration at Penn implemented a 5% reduction in funding for every department, including the funds that the Provost’s Office had allocated to the UA.
At the meeting, UA members and other participants voiced concerns about student organizations who are already struggling financially and asked about the possibility of using the approximately $170,000 in reserve funds.
“We have talked to Katie Bonner, who’s the Executive Director of the Office of Student Affairs, and she said that depending on certain variables, there’s a likelihood that we could drain the reserve fund up to 150k,” Ellendula said.
Chandler Cheung, UA Treasurer and a senior in engineering, emphasized the importance of taking into account the reserve fund’s possible future needs as well as the unprecedented nature of the financial cuts.
“We don’t know how long these cuts will last, and the Provost’s office doesn’t know what’s going to happen,” Cheung said. “So I wouldn’t recommend draining the entire reserve fund just for this short-term need now.”
The proposed budget cuts were presented by financial representatives from MERT, the Student Activities Council, the Social Planning and Events Committee, and other organizations. Each speaker was followed by a quick Q&A session.
In the budget reallocation plan, SPEC funding was reduced by about 7%, or $83,350, with $15,000 taken out of the organization’s concerts talent category, which contributes to the annual Spring Fling.
According to a chart shown during the conference, the SAC would also be cut by about 2%, or $32,000.
The Nominations and Elections Committee suggested reducing its funding by $4,500, which would represent a 49% reduction from the organization’s initial budget.
“We are cutting about half of our budget, it hurts to say,” an NEC representative said. “But we recognize the importance of this. This is an unprecedented situation, and we’re willing to make some of these sacrifices.”
MERT intends to completely eliminate its Modernization Fund, which was previously allocated $1,700, and reduce its Equipment and Supplies allocation from $12,300 to $11,750. The change results in an overall budget cut of $2,250, or about 12% of their initial budget.
With a $1,000 decrease from the Freshman Events Fund, a $7,000 cut from the Sophomore and Senior Events Funds, and a $6,000 cut from the Junior Events Fund, the four Class Boards intend to reduce their budgets by $21,000.
“It’s important to notice that there are denominators and numerators here,” UA Speaker Leo Solga said. “It looks as though the sophomore and senior [funds] are cutting about the same. But when it comes to percentages, it varies widely. There’s an effort to preserve senior spending capability due to Feb Club and other such traditions.”
In order to fully defund UA Operations’ $500 budget and UA Steering’s $400 initial allocation, the UA itself reduced its budget by 15%.
The budgets of PennLabs and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education will be cut by roughly 11% and 10%, respectively.
“My understanding is that we have quite a lot of leeway and flexibility [with amendment procedures] because we are not passing the budget,” Solga said. “These are not budget meetings. Technically speaking, what we’re in is an ‘emergency meeting.’”
To complete the revised budget, the UA will hold a second budget meeting on Wednesday of next week.
https://bdeshishku.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj-week-9/
“Opinion: Homelessness in Syracuse sparks need for unconventional reform” by Saimun Uddin is an opinion piece where the writer explains the rise of homelessness and how it is becoming a problem that should not be ignored. Uddin is able to get his point across in a number of ways but one that sticks out is the statistic he used towards the beginning of the article, which is, “Since 2021, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Onondaga, Cayuga and Oswego counties has surged by 150%, according to the Housing & Homelessness Coalition of Central New York. Even more troubling, family homelessness in central New York has jumped by a devastating 192% since 2019.” The reason Uddin used these statistics is because they jump out at you showing you the increase in homelessness. Uddin also elaborates on how there are plenty of homeless people around Syracuse University and it makes a lot of the students feel unsafe and there have been plenty of reports to the Dean about it. There are constant muggings,property crimes, and assault that goes on between these homeless people and it makes Syracuse feel like an unsafe university. To end the article, Uddin provides what he believes to be a potential solution that the University and other people should be trying to work on, “Addressing the crisis means investing in affordable housing, holding negligent landlords accountable, improving safety near our schools and finding new ways to give in a digital world.”
https://dailyorange.com/2025/04/opinion-homelessness-in-syracuse-sparks-need-for-unconventional-reform/
“4,000 gather in downtown Syracuse for ‘Hands Off!’ anti-Trump protest” by Harry Kelly is an article that is elaborating on the protest that happened in the city of Syracuse last Saturday. Kelly explains how over 4,000 people gathered in the city to participate in the “Hands off!” protests that are rallies against President Trump’s efforts to limit LGBTQ+ and immigrants’ rights, shutter federal agencies like the Department of Education, and undo climate protections, among others. Kelly also explains how students from Syracuse University were involved in this protest as well, for example Kelly interviews Tyler Toledo, the president of College Democrats at SU, who said he was there to fight for his right to peacefully protest in the first place. Toledo talks a lot about how the students at the university feel, and he also talks about how the majority of the country is upset as well, so something needs to be done in order to change that. Kelly interviews other people as well to get more insight on the protests, but everyone he interviewed has the same opinion as Toledo.
https://dailyorange.com/2025/04/4000-gather-downtown-syracuse-for-hands-off-protest/
https://wchandler.uneportfolio.org/2025/04/07/blog-proj-9/
BLOG PROJ WEEK 9
President Crow’s AI advisor ideas generate buzz among students
https://www.statepress.com/article/2025/03/crow-ai-advising
President of Arizona State University Michael Crow proposes a new head turning idea to ASU. In a meeting with the State Press on October 25th, Crow put his idea of AI academic advisors on the table. He believes this idea can provide a more personalized experience for students as advisors would not have to keep track of multiple students at a time. However, Crows ambitions with AI go even further; “Our hope is that we will end up with an… agent-based AI assistant for everyone at some point, that’s what we’re working for”. In January of 2024, ASU partnered with the creators of the very popular site ChatGPT, marking the start of their AI journey, as well as other AI partners; “We’re working with this particular company, which is called FYI.ai and it was invented and discovered and developed by Will.i.am, the creative genius that he is” stated Crow. Students are not completely sold on this idea however, Freshman Jacob Weinstock offered his thoughts; “When you look at a person, there’s just something there that AI just can’t do. It’s all computer learning,” Weinstock said. “It’s learning what to say based on what you said. It doesn’t actually take what you’re saying and put it through its own mind, because it doesn’t have one”.
‘Survival’ from classes: Minecraft server acts as online escape for ASU students
https://www.statepress.com/article/2025/04/the-echo-minecraft-server-builds-community
In November of 2024, a group at ASU called The School of Earth and Space Exploration created a new way for students to de-stress. They created a public server for ASU students to join and collabrote in the worlds most popular video game, Minecraft. The server went underway when the group sent out an inquiry on Discord to ASU students asking if a Minecraft server would be a good idea for students, they where met with a resounding yes. Chloe Haramis, a student studying astrophyiscs and event coordinator for TSES offers insight; “The whole idea of doing the Minecraft server was to bring together both online and in-person students where we can interact with each other and play a game”. The Minecraft server has been running for several months at this point and not slowed down. A regular on the server and Mechanical Engineering Major Hayden Ferrell explained the power of the server; “It kept me in contact with a lot of the people … because it was just a way to hang out over break and during finals week with those in SESE”.
https://cstickney.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj/