On February 27, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) abruptly terminated around 880 employees, over 7.3% of the total staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Before the terminations, NOAA had approximately 12,000 employees that included 6,773 scientists and engineers.[1][2][3][4] These firings included federal researchers and dual-role OU-federal researchers at the National Weather Center, including students in the OU School of Meteorology.[5] Shortly after the firings, William Alsup, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that the OPM "had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees".[1]
On May 3, one day after the second protest at OU, the Department of Government Efficiency announced that it had terminated a $300,519 grant for OU from the National Science Foundation that was for "collaborative research" for the "understanding [of] the evolution of political campaign advertisements over the last century". DOGE announced it saved the United States government $124,466.78 by terminating the grant.[12][13]
Budget changes
In March 2025, the United States’ Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a seven-page proposed budget for NOAA in 2026. The proposed budget was proposed to cut 27.28% of NOAA's budget in order to "eliminate functions of the Department that are misaligned with the President's agenda and the expressed will of the American people".[14] The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) had a 73.86% budget cut proposed, which would "eliminate all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. It also does not fund Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, Sea Grant (College and Aquaculture), or the National Oceanographic Partnership Program.[14] This includes the complete defunding of the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO), both located at the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus.[14]
Visas revoked
In April 2025, the United States government terminated the visas of over 1,000 international students, particularly pro-Hamas/pro-Palestine supporting international students and academics, for possible deportation.[15][16][17][18][19] Several OU student visas were among those terminated, however, OU never released how many were terminated.[20][21] On April 25, the Department of Justice announced the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "is working on a new system regarding international students studying in the U.S. and, until the system is issued, no students will have their student visas revoked".[22]
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