Research Institute Wilson Center Shuts Down After Executive Order
The Wilson Center in Washington D.C. has been forced to stop its operations following an Executive Order from March 14th. (Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid at en.wikipedia)
The Trump administration's attack on research and education has claimed another victim, the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. The nonpartisan foreign policy think tank is home to the Polar Institute, a leading forum for discussion and policy analysis of Arctic and Antarctic issues.
The Wilson Center, the nonpartisan foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C is now complying with a March 14th Executive Order to reduce to its minimum statutory functions, the center wrote in an e-mail this week.
The executive order calls for a continued reduction of the federal bureaucracy. Since taking office, Trump has fired tens of thousands of federal workers, many of whom work in the education, research, and health sectors.
Just four days after Elon Musk's workers entered the Wilson Center, about 130 employees were put on leave. Only five employees remain at the center: a president, two federal employees, and two researchers on fellowships.
The employees put on leave will be paid but soon be fired, in line with what has happened at other institutions targeted by Musk and DOGE.
The center was established in 1968 as a working memorial to honor the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson. It receives about 30 percent of its funding from Congress; the rest comes from private donations, according to the New York Times.
The Polar Institute
The Wilson Center has been an essential part of Arctic research with its Polar Institute.
The institute was established in 2017 and has been a premier forum for discussion and policy analysis of Arctic and Arctic issues, known as the Arctic Public Square.
The institute focused on governance, climate change, economic development, scientific research, security, and Indigenous communities and communicated its analyses to policymakers and other stakeholders.
Data loss
With the loss of other research institutes, cuts in funding, and attacks on DEI (diversity, equality, and inclusion) and climate initiatives, among other things, there is a significant risk of important research data being lost forever.
Many researchers worry about what will happen to critical data and materials as workers are shut out of systems and e-mail accounts. Thousands of pages across government websites that contained essential data have also been taken down, representing a pivotal purge of public information.
The Wilson Center has gathered extensive materials and digital archives, and its documents from the Cold War era have been of particular interest to scholars worldwide. However, it is still uncertain what will happen to these archives.
