EDU Townhall February 19, 2025 by SRI Education

2025-02-19 17:34:49 UTC

Will corporate support a lower OH rate to raise potential for winning state funding?

2025-02-19 17:35:04 UTC

Can you share who has already been laid off? Would like to say goodbye/lend support to colleagues.

2025-02-19 17:36:36 UTC

We need to bring in some money as quickly as possible. I suggest that we find ways to explore the fastest options that are feasible. State, local, foundation. Internal funding -- is that an option?

2025-02-19 17:37:18 UTC

What kinds of ongoing conversations are being had about maintaining and holding to our values as a division? I understand the need to shift from high visibility language, but I recognize there is a balance to be struck to ensure we do not compromise on our support of equitable outcomes for all children and families.

2025-02-19 17:37:27 UTC

My understanding is that the profit we charge gets funneled into IRAD. Can we suspend IRADs (sorry to IRAD PIs) so that we can funnel those dollars into business development/saving jobs? Could we use those funds to offset our high overhead rate to make us more competitive (not sure how the accounting works)? Basically that seems like a big pot of money that could be better used than for IRADs.

clbengesteele — 2025-02-19 17:38:30 UTC

How can less experienced staff support BD?

2025-02-19 17:39:34 UTC

For folks who do not have as much experience with going after commercial or foundation work is there support for figuring out how to shift?

2025-02-19 17:41:12 UTC

Can we get a list of the projects and funding sources that have been cut so far? They are coming in piecemeal and its hard to keep track. Thank you!

2025-02-19 17:43:16 UTC

I know that the scenario planning is sensitive and planning for unknowns, but I do think it would be helpful to share rough ideas of what we might envision as a response (e.g., generally 5 more people cut) should we lose say 20% more of our work or other scenarios.

And if there are circumstances where it would make a difference, I imagine it would be helpful if folks could be directly offered to reduce their overhead before fully being cut in future scenarios.

2025-02-19 17:43:29 UTC

Crazy idea: Is there any way to join forces with our competitors? For example, some big universities that get OH rates like we get also sit on massive pots of dollars from their graduates. Is there any way to approach them about allocating some of those dollars to support research teams for a few years that don't have that backup money? This should be part of a united resistance between higher ed and research communities.

2025-02-19 17:44:33 UTC

For those of us who do a lot of federal BD, to what extent should we continue planning for proposal submissions to NSF or IES this year? Should we pause or lessen overhead spending on federal B&P, or what's the advised strategy?

2025-02-19 17:44:53 UTC

With our performance period coming to an end, is it likely there will be a freeze on raises?

2025-02-19 17:47:18 UTC

What is the plan for lawsuits re: REL and other federally-funded projects?

2025-02-19 17:50:34 UTC

Mathematica put out a great piece yesterday about the loss of their REL. Can we do something similar? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mathematica-statement-cancellation-regional-educational-laboratories-0vaae/

2025-02-19 17:51:12 UTC

How do we communicate about the value of our work in an environment that wants to dismantle public education entirely? And like was mentioned in the chat, under an administration that is actively putting out anti-education propaganda?

2025-02-19 17:51:31 UTC

RE: what LeighAnn is saying about not everyone going to look for a date in the bar: please make what you are doing visible to staff. We know there is a lot going on behind the scenes. But for those of us who are not "in the know," careful planning can look like inaction, which is super stressful.

2025-02-19 17:51:52 UTC

If the number of canceled projects holds at around 20%, this might be something we can adapt to with our current rate structure. But if we contract to 50% or more, I don't see a path for making up those losses with state and foundation work. I remember the efforts to pivot to state work under Trump I and we did not make much headway. A contraction of 50%, to me, means that SRI EDU needs to fundamentally rethink its business model and rate structure. Mark Scheider called out SRI's 60% "OH" rate in that LinkedIn podcast. I'm not convinced that business as usual is a viable path going forward. What options for radical restructuring are under discussion? To remain competitive in the future -- it is very possible that the federal marketplace has fundmentally shifted and the era of high-priced govt contractors is over.

souyangsri — 2025-02-19 17:55:54 UTC

Can we hear from the CEO how SRI as a whole is rebalancing funds across divisions? EDU has been consistently bringing in revenue for the past few years and it makes more sense to prioritize funds for our division rather than divisions that have been losing money.

2025-02-19 18:00:22 UTC

How much are board members paid? If they are paid, why did we add a new board member?

2025-02-19 18:07:18 UTC

What is SRI going to do about lowering our indirect rates? This is a fundamental barrier to doing work for states (most of which have less funding and put out smaller contracts) and foundations. How is the industry at large (our competitors/partners) responding to this?