As the government shutdown enters its 11th day, some students are finding it affects them in a way they never expected — if they can do their homework.
Classes that require use of government records are having to rearrange their schedules to accommodate the fact that many of the websites aren’t working.
Andrea Vidal, a 20-year-old UF public relations junior, said the most recent lab for her population geography class had to change from using Census data from states to comparing different countries, because the U.S. Census website is not running.
“You don’t expect your academic career to be affected by the government shutdown,” Vidal said. “Especially an assignment, which is the most miniscule thing.”
She said she feels bad for her professor because he couldn’t have anticipated an unprecedented government shutdown to mess up the assignment schedule.
“It’s a bit of an obstacle, but he’s handling it pretty well,” Vidal said.
John Paul Weesner, a Ph. D. student who teaches site analysis online, wrote in an email that his class had a soil analysis assignment that students couldn’t complete.
He said one positive result of the shutdown is that it forces students to use the Marston library website to get information — or even go to the library itself. Still, he said he would postpone the next assignment, which analyzes land use and regulation, just in case sites still aren’t up.
For Austin Bracey, a chemical engineering student, the shutdown has stalled his research on redesigning drug structure to eliminate negative side effects.
The 19-year-old UF sophomore said a program his research team needs is only accessible from the National Institutes of Health website, and for four or five days it could not be accessed.
He said during that time he was frustrated and annoyed because it put the research on hold.
“You don’t think the shutdown will affect you personally,” Bracey said.
He said he became aware the shutdown might affect him when employers at the Career Showcase asked him if the funding for his research would end because of the shutdown. He said luckily the team received a grant and that wasn’t the case.
The program became accessible again after a few days, Bracey said. He said he thinks someone realized the program was important enough to keep it running.
Still, he said, his experience made him think more about the shutdown.
“It took my position from not caring about the government shutdown to being angry about it,” he said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/11/2013 under the headline "UF students: The shutdown ate my homework"
A compilation of shutdown notices are seen on various government websites.
