Reports in the Chronicle of Higher Education and news website Inside Higher Ed have pondered whether the cuts solely will be to what are called Title VI centers and Fulbright-Hays grants or other areas as well.

Those reports peg the $50 million cut as a 40 percent reduction to the amount disbursed for such programs by the Department of Education.

MSU operates five Title VI centers, which are geared toward education and research in foreign languages and regional studies. Fulbright-Hays programs are awarded to doctoral students to conduct research abroad.

Jeffrey Riedinger, dean of MSU’s Office of International Studies and Programs, which oversees both programs, said news of the possible cuts somewhat blind-sided the university because there was little to no indication that would occur. Whether those programs’ funding are cut seems to be up for debate.

“I’m fearful that the magnitude may be fairly large,” said Siddharth Chandra, director of MSU’s Asian Studies Center. “The budget for these programs is relatively small. When you take a 40 (percent) to 50 percent hit on a small program, you become tiny.”

Federal funds under Title VI are funneled primarily to instruction and foreign studies fellowships, Chandra said. Both are areas of concern, he said, because deep funding cuts might mean foreign language and studies programs offered by such centers might be scaled back.

That could translate to staffing cuts and significantly altering foreign research programs for students, Chandra said.

Others, such as Patricia Paulsell, co-director of MSU’s Center for Language Education and Research, or CLEAR, do not discount dissolution of centers because of cuts.

“(CLEAR) was established in 1996 and has been maintained since then with federal funds,” Paulsell said in an email. “CLEAR could not continue to function without those funds.”

Paulsell said funding for Title VI centers has been stagnant throughout the past 15 years, and growing costs have meant such centers have been forced to become “extremely lean.”

“There simply is no fat to cut; deep cuts would seriously jeopardize our mission,” she said.

Title VI programs are invaluable to fostering knowledge of areas of critical importance to the U.S., Chandra said. The government provides funds to bolster education in areas deemed to be increasingly relevant, such as national security and maintaining a competitive edge internationally.

Until it is known whether the funding cuts will impact the centers and research programs, contingency planning is taking place. Riedinger said MSU administrators are plotting a course of action.

The Asian Studies Center, for its part, is beginning to look at its priorities, Chandra said.

“It’s hard to be proactive when you don’t know exactly what’s going to be happening,” he said.