According to Executive Officer Lt. Col. Jeffrey Erts, members of the ROTC — called cadets — were supposed to receive the first of their bimonthly stipends, which range from $300 to $500, on Oct. 15. As the U.S. Army scales back on educational assistance because of the federal government shutdown, however, cadets can expect a delay of their stipends until Congress can agree on a budget.

“We expect that they will be paid eventually, but not until there’s a budget,” Erts said. “And right now, there’s no budget.”

The delay of the stipends is disruptive for many cadets, according to UC Berkeley sophomore Tony Chang, a cadet in the ROTC. Chang is studying to work in the Medical Corps and uses the stipend to pay for books and food.

“I know emergencies can happen, and I just want to be prepared, so I had saved up money before the shutdown,” he said. “But other cadets are asking for a little help.”

In addition to the stipend, some students also receive the Army ROTC scholarship, which covers either a cadet’s tuition or housing costs as well as other school-related costs. Erts estimated that of the 50 students enrolled in the program, about 18 receive the scholarship.

Whether the scholarship money will be distributed this semester will be determined in the next two weeks, he said.

“We still have some time,” Erts said. “But if the scholarship is delayed, we will have a discussion with the school to make sure cadets remain enrolled in classes.”

The funding shortage affects other aspects of the ROTC as well. Erts said that while recruitment has been largely unaffected, the program can no longer hold recruitment events off campus, which could hinder the strength of the program in the future.

Meanwhile, the Fall Field Training Exercise, one of the ROTC’s most important events for the fall semester, has been postponed, according to senior military instructor Master Sgt. Jose Magana.

Calling the exercise “critical,” Magana said it offers the only chance for cadets to learn skills such as land navigation and ways to acclimate to the field environment.

Two of the program’s employees were furloughed during the first week of the shutdown, but they were allowed to return to work, according to Erts.

Nevertheless, both cadets and officials remain optimistic. Erts said cadets are taking the funding challenges in stride.

“In some ways, they are too busy to get involved in politics,” he said.

For Tony Chang, the Army is more than an avenue to pay for college anyway.

“I always wanted to be in the Army,” he said. “I fall in love with it more and more all the time.”

Contact Savannah Luschei at sluschei@dailycal.org.

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Spencer Klein/Courtesy

Right now, UC Berkeley graduate Zigmund Kermish should be preparing to launch a balloon-based telescope from Antarctica. This instrument, which would rise 120,000 feet into the atmosphere, collects data that might provide insight into the physics behind the Big Bang.

He would be on the ice by Nov. 1 if the U.S. government hadn’t shut down.

But without a spending bill to fund government operations, the National Science Foundation ran out of funds for the U.S. Antarctic Program about Monday, forcing a delay on Kermish’s work as well as that of other campus researchers. The shutdown comes at a crucial time for these scientists — the start of Antarctic summer, when many researchers head south to upgrade or begin projects.

Even if the federal government were to reopen tomorrow, Kermish said, researchers would not fully recover from the delay.

The base out of which these balloons are launched opens only for this period of about three months, during which weather further limits the time available for preparation and launch. Kermish, who is working on this project as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, said this instrument has been developing since about 2008.

Now, they must wait another year to collect data.

In an Oct. 8 statement, the NSF said it will continue to staff research stations in Antarctica at the minimum level, called “caretaker status,” required to keep people and property safe. What constitutes caretaker status, however, is still unclear to researchers.

“The rule is only essential operations can continue,” said Elizabeth George, a UC Berkeley doctoral student working on another project, the South Pole Telescope. “So in principle, you can say, ‘My equipment’s going to freeze — that is essential,’ but the reality of the situation is those decisions about what’s essential are not really made by scientists.”

The South Pole Telescope detects remaining light from the Big Bang, according to George, which can be used to study the early universe. Regardless of what the NSF decides to do, she said, any delay can wreak logistical havoc on such a large enterprise.

“Anything you do in Antarctica is driven by logistics: You need food, you need fuel, you need transportation,” said Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory senior scientist Spencer Klein, who is involved with the Berkeley IceCube group, which also does work in Antarctica. “Things that are just minor details here are enormous down there.”

George fears that, because of the current delay, the fuel required by these research stations will not arrive in time to start them up for next year. In that case, South Pole Telescope researchers will lose a year of data.

Additionally, contract workers, who agree to work in Antarctica for a set period of time, will be out of a job if a lack of funding prevents their deployment.

Klein faces similar issues in his South Pole project. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory — one cubic kilometer in volume — detects subatomic particles called neutrinos, which possess incredibly high energies. Scientists hope they can see how the particles reached such high energies by tracking their direction.

Klein said the NSF is unlikely to risk damaging equipment, considering the organization has already invested $242 million in IceCube. According to Klein, the observatory needs at least two people at the South Pole to maintain the technology and collect data. If data collection continues but the shutdown prevents researchers from flying down to upgrade the hardware this Antarctic summer, he said, the sacrifice will be survivable but not ideal.

“I just feel pretty helpless about the situation,” Klein said. “Everybody’s kind of making this up as they go.”

Contact Melissa Wen at mwen@dailycal.org.

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The government has shut down, but the world hasn’t ended. Yet. So what has changed? How will the government shutdown make a difference in your life?

Handouts

What does government shutdown mean?

A government shutdown is the name of the process the federal government must enter when Congress fails to pass legislation funding government operations and agencies. On Oct. 1, the U.S. government entered this shutdown after Congress failed to enact regular appropriations (a sum of money devoted to a special purpose) for the fiscal year 2014.

How could it affect me?

1. Your grants and research funding could be stalled: With federal programs being defunded, government subsidies for scientific research — like that at public universities such as ours — just might become inaccessible. Already granted awards are to be honored, but the government does not have the money or the initiative to provide new funds. With the Department of Education having neither a budget nor a full staff, ongoing and proposed scientific research are not a priority.

2. All research funding could be stalled: We may not always think about it, but government research, such as that at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has a profound impact on our lives. Not only has the annual surveillance of the flu virus has been halted, but food inspection facilities have been closed as well, leading to outbreaks in salmonella and hepatitis.

3. Academic resources will not be updated: Speaking of research, if you’re looking for federal data and information for a research paper, you might have to keep looking. The websites for the U.S. Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Education Resources Information Center, the National Archives and more have not been kept up to date since.

Going somewhere?

4. You might have to change your travel plans: Oh, you need a passport to study abroad next semester? Might want to get started on that application. No last-minute passports are being granted, and, in fact, you can expect delays in the process. You might be delayed at the airport, too, as the TSA has furloughed its “nonessential” employees. But even if you were thinking about driving down to Yosemite to go camping for the weekend, you’re going to have to change your plans. Many attractions run by the National Park Service have been closed. You’ll just have to wait until the government starts working again.

5. And what’s the deal with financial aid? Thankfully, federal student aid should go largely unaffected, at least for the time being. There is supposed to be a limited impact on both the administration of FAFSA and student loan repayment abilities, while direct loans, Pell Grants and other financial aid dollars will continue to be distributed. In the long term, however, a shutdown lasting awhile might curb funding to public universities, such as us here at UC Berkeley.

Has the government ever shut down before?

Yes. Technically, this is the 18th time since 1976 that the government has shut down. But only two other shutdowns have lasted longer than two weeks, as this year’s has — when Bill Clinton and congressional Republicans wrangled over budget matters from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 5, 1996 (21 days), and during Jimmy Carter’s administration from Sept. 30, 1978, to Oct. 18, 1978 (18 days).

When does it end? 

It will end when Congress passes the bill(s) to fund the government and the president signs them.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that a government shutdown during President Jimmy Carter’s tenure lasted from Sept. 20, 1978, to Oct. 18, 1978. In fact, that shutdown lasted from Sept. 30, 1978, to Oct. 18, 1978.

Image Sources: NPCA Photos, wanderingnebulaandadog, 401(K) 2013, Claus Rebler, Hash Milhan, Sean MacEntee, John-Morgan, sleeping-on-the-clouds, and motionlmags 

Contact Holly Secon and Sujin Shin at blog@dailycal.org.

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The morning of Oct. 1, online healthcare exchanges mandated by the Affordable Care Act opened up around the country against the backdrop of federal agencies closing down and UC Berkeley students grudgingly accepting the reality of class despite the explosion on campus. While the launch survived Tea Party inanity, it did run into technical issues. Some of these issues — such as higher-than-expected site traffic — were unforeseen. Many, however, were known even before the exchanges launched, as The New York Times reported earlier that week. Although this seems like a Washington problem, allow me to propose a very Bay Area solution.

Economics teaches us our activities are limited by the quantity of resources we have. No doubt some of the technical issues with the health care exchanges were due to limited resources — specifically, time, money and ideas. The government could hire only a limited number of individuals to write code for its software and only had a limited amount of time before the exchanges had to be launched. But what if such limits on resources could be lifted? What if instead of just a couple hundred employees designing the exchanges, a couple hundred thousand could? What if we crowdsourced the development to the general public? We could have a nearly unbounded number of man-hours. And the outcome would surely be greater than the sum of the efforts put in by each individual due to a synergistic effect.

Crowdsourcing — taking a job usually performed by a designated agent and “outsourcing” it to a large group of people — can go beyond just the health care exchanges. Every November, we are reminded of issues with electronic voting systems, which can hinder our ability to perform perhaps the most basic of our civic duties. Instead of making voters feel uncertain about whether their vote is properly counted, government can ask for their help in making sure it is. Similarly, budgets can be crowdsourced. Instead of politicians and special interests deciding how government makes and spends money, let the citizens offer their best ideas. I can almost guarantee education would be made a higher priority, while senseless subsidies would be rolled back.

Further, crowdsourcing allows citizens to take part in government in a uniquely 21st century manner. As Newark mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker likes to say, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” Being part of the democratic process is a responsibility of living in a democracy. Not everyone wants to run for office or work on a campaign, perhaps on account of the antics witnessed on C-SPAN. Yet many want to do more than cast a ballot. This gives those people a chance to take part in government in a very meaningful way. And given the fact that government touches nearly every aspect of our lives, I’m sure anyone who wants to will be able to find someway to get involved. At UC Berkeley, with our strong inclination toward public service and activism, trying to solve some of the challenges our country faces could perhaps become part of relevant classes.

Of course, there are many unintended consequences and points of concern that should be considered — cybersecurity perhaps being the most significant. With so many people having access to specifications of what government needs done, questions about data security are only natural. Before croudsourcing government activity can become a reality, a dialogue must be had over who can know what. And ideas and solutions that come out of crowdsourcing ought to be thoroughly vetted to prevent any harm. Admittedly, many activities, perhaps those dealing with national security, would remain private. But just because people cannot work on every aspect of government policy does not mean they should be prevented from doing something.

We hear a lot about government being broken. Politicians often run for election on the platform of being outsiders wanting to “fix government.” But if we really want to reform our government and minimize its inefficiencies, we have to let new ideas permeate it. These new ideas are not going to come in the form of soundbites and filibusters. They will come from all of us tinkering with the nuts and bolts of our government. And, at a time when our government can’t keep itself up and running, these new ideas are invaluable.

 Tejas Dave is a sophomore at UC Berkeley sophomore.

Editor’s note: Tejas Dave is a former Daily Cal staff member.

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Katie Holmes/Staff

The battle lines have been drawn. As the government shuts down, our leadership continues to be uncooperative. The government’s traditionally routine authorization to keep its doors open, known as the continuing resolution, has once again devolved into gridlock. Both political parties continue to bask in national attention as they herald their plans as the most responsible solution to today’s manufactured crisis and demonize their opposition in the media. The parties are hoping to energize their bases and open the wallets of high-profile donors. We are witnessing the firing salvo of the 2014 congressional elections as both sides bask in national attention. Our leaders should instead be working together toward solutions rather than blaming one another.

Understandably, the American people are disgusted by Washington’s consistent inaction. The global community laughs at the inability of our leaders to resolve their petty differences. I find it egregious that eleventh-hour-deadline-induced fights have become the forum of “debate” about fiscal responsibility, especially when the real loser to emerge from these cyclical crises is our generation.

The financial trajectory of our nation is particularly important to young adults, as we are the ones who will feel the greatest burden of today’s fiscal policy in insolvent social programs, rampant costs of education and more. Financial uncertainty threatens the prospect for generational equity, that we should have the same, if not better, opportunities than our parents and grandparents. This concept is central to our mission at Common Sense Action, especially here at Berkeley, where our rich history of activism further encourages our desire to make student voices heard.

Our lawmakers must find a way to rationally discuss fiscal reform instead of treating the subject as another excuse to engage in partisan warfare and political hostage-taking. House Republicans have made a risky tactical decision to conditionally tie government funding to weakening segments of the Affordable Care Act, a stance that is anathema to Senate Democrats and President Obama, who fought tooth and nail to get the law passed in the first place. These non-negotiations highlight the parties’ seemingly irreconcilable prescriptions to our greater financial unsustainability.

Our national debt must be controlled in order to make the necessary investments for economic growth, not in spite of them. Moreover, financial sustainability is essential in ensuring that our government works for us rather than forces our generation to work ever harder to support bloated social programs, an aging population, etc.

The government shutdown will have far-reaching economic consequences as a result of market uncertainty, direct federal unemployment and bureaucratic inefficiency. Other than being unable to celebrate Yosemite’s birthday on site this weekend, Berkeley students should be more concerned about the potential for an economic shock that could have long-lasting effects on job growth at the critical moment many of us are preparing to enter the workforce. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are experiencing furloughs that will have immediate negative economic consequences resulting from reduced consumer spending. Resource-strapped federal agencies will have to continue essential operations but in doing so must forfeit much of their capabilities, especially in terms of regulation and enforcement.

Nonetheless, the government shutdown is only a precursor to the looming debt-ceiling crisis that will threaten the already fragile economy in the coming weeks. The framing of that negotiation is not yet entirely clear, but we’re on track for the funding and borrowing debates to be wrapped together into a very dangerous confrontation and a maelstrom of government paralysis. If a continuing resolution is not passed and the government shutdown continues until we reach the debt ceiling, the federal government will simultaneously lack the legal authority to borrow money and spend on “nonessential services,” which are for the most part quite important. Despite the name, these services include things such as access to federally operated parks and museums, nutritional supplements and disaster-preparedness funding.

As a result, the economic impact of inaction will be disastrous, with the Bipartisan Policy Center estimating an immediate 32 percent cut in government spending in one scenario. With a systemic debt crisis, the last thing we need is to risk a relapse into recession or another credit downgrade, potentially worse than that of 2011, which the BPC estimates is costing taxpayers more than 18 billion dollars. This outcome will only make our debt less manageable and further burden our generation with future financial uncertainty.

Considering the political constraints set by the fast-approaching midterm elections, the only solution seems to be the late-night joint committees we have become all too familiar with. Cooperation is understandably difficult with the two parties holding very divergent philosophies about the role of government. However, I believe that only through mutual concessions can a responsible solution be reached without either side having to initiate the compromise. The larger issues of long-term fiscal responsibility must then be methodically approached during times of legislative peace to ensure thoughtful discussion and formulation. Ultimately, both sides are also going to have to compromise on some of their key values to make progress on our dire financial situation.

Sam Syde is the co-founder and vice president of Common Sense Action at Berkeley.

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