The United States government was shut down on Oct. 1 due to lawmakers being unable to pass a funding bill for fiscal year 2026. As of Oct. 17, the shutdown continues, with legislators divided across party lines.
As for higher education — assuming the government shutdown is short-term — there won’t be any major effects.
Each branch of the US government has to agree to pass funding bills for each fiscal year, or the government will shut down. Republicans proposed spending cuts to government health agencies, and most Democrats voted in opposition. For the government shutdown to end, Republicans and Democrats need to reach an agreement.
“If I had to find a bright note, I would say the timing is important and is actually beneficial to higher education,” Wichita State’s Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Government Relations, Zach Gearhart, said. “But that’s obviously unique to us versus other people who depend on agencies.”
The federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30, which means students’ financial aid will not be affected for the 2025-26 school year because all student loans are processed in the summer.
“I think the good news for higher (education) is the biggest thing they do for us is probably — from a financial standpoint — the disbursement of federal financial aid,” Gearhart said. “That usually happens over the course of the summer after students obviously do the FAFSA, and then the Department of Education then pushes those funds out to the individual universities too, then pushes out to students.”
There have been four government shutdowns in the past 10 years, so many government entities are prepared for when it may happen, Gearhart said.
“With the number of times that it’s been threatened, which is way more (than four), they’ve become somewhat normalized,” Gearhart said. “I think a lot of the agencies at the federal level and agencies locally in states, that depend on federal agencies, have kind of figured out how they respond to it, how they work, or how they prioritize their operations with limited funding and personnel.”
Also, since government shutdowns do happen relatively often, it is rare that the government will fully halt all operations, according to Gearhart. Many government employees are still required to work without pay, but that has little effect on WSU or any other public university.
If the shutdown continues long-term, however, Gearhart said the university will have to grapple with the financial impact from its effect on federal student financial aid.
“In the event that the shutdown were to happen prior to federal financial aid being dispersed, I think that we would have to work well in advance to put into support whatever financial resources we could bring to bear to help those students,” Gearhart said. “But it would almost certainly have unavoidable consequences for the financial situation for the university.”
