CT State Colleges and Universities chief out after spending scandal
The embattled leader of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system will be removed from his position beginning July 1, according to a release from CSCU.
CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng, whose lavish spending, out-of-state home and high salary have drawn scrutiny, will transition to a new role as strategic advisor to the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education, according to the statement attributed to the board.
The statement says that Cheng's contract, which is scheduled to end June 30, 2026, will not be renewed.
'I thank Chancellor Cheng for his hard work, partnership, and dedication to the system,' said Marty Guay, chair of the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education. 'The future is bright for CSCU as we look to set a new direction for the system.
'We have a real opportunity to make impactful investments in our system in the best interests of the students we serve and the state as a whole. We will continue to create more opportunities and access for students, boost graduation rates, and strengthen our talent pipelines to ensure they are aligned with industry needs and meet workforce demands. These efforts will ensure our students are set up for success in their careers and beyond,' Guay said in the statement.
CSCU, which includes both Connecticut's 12 community colleges and its four state universities, saw an increase in enrollment under Cheng, who assumed the role in July of 2021: 4.4% for fall 2024 and a 6.2% increase for spring 2025, according to CSCU. Cheng oversaw the consolidation of the previously independent community colleges into a single multi-campus institution and oversaw efforts to ease enrollment access for transfer students and Connecticut high school students.
During his tenure, CSCU also created partnerships with key industries and community organizations to benefit workforce development and opened multiple new health care and manufacturing sites across the state.
'It has been a true honor to serve as Chancellor of the CSCU system and its 65,000 students. I am incredibly proud of the work we have done to eliminate barriers to higher education, and increase educational access, equity, and opportunity for students, particularly for first-generation and minoritized students. Together, we have opened new doors for students and changed the trajectory of their lives,' Cheng said. 'I remain deeply committed to this work and will continue to work with the Board of Regents and build on the success of the CSCU system.'
The news follows sharp criticism from elected officials and calls for his firing from Republicans after he was shown to have abused a state credit card.
An audit by the state comptroller, requested by Gov. Ned Lamont, of expenses and credit card use by leadership at Connecticut State Colleges and Universities revealed a 'systemic problem,' the state's comptroller said, citing misspending of thousands of dollars on food, entertainment and transportation by nearly all the campus presidents.
The audit was prompted by a December 2024 CT Insider report on Cheng's spending that found records of expensive meals including $60 steaks, $490 chauffeured rides and more. Cheng was also given more than $21,000 to relocate from New York to Connecticut but reportedly never made the move.
When the spending report was released, Republican leaders called for Cheng's immediate termination.
Republican minority leaders Sen. Stephen Harding and Rep. Vincent J. Candelora said 'Make no mistake—this is a black eye for the State of Connecticut. While we appreciate Comptroller Scanlon's proposals to address spending abuses and procedural failures within the CSCU system, restoring public trust demands bold and decisive action.
That begins with terminating the employment of CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng. His continued leadership over a system in clear disarray undermines efforts to restore stability and confidence among students, parents, staff, and taxpayers alike.'
On Monday, Candelora with Rep. Seth Bronko, House ranking member of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, called for stronger oversight.
'Given the well-deserved controversy over Terrence Cheng's flagrant — if not infamous — spending abuses, and the systemwide revolt by staff against his leadership, his departure as chancellor is long overdue. Public trust has been shattered, and a change was needed so the system can begin to rebuild. Unfortunately, students, parents, and taxpayers won't be able to move on so easily, as Mr. Cheng will remain on the payroll as a 'strategic advisor' for the final year of his contract. Going forward, the Board of Regents must ensure that contracts for this position prioritize the interests of the state — and that far stronger oversight is finally put in place.'
Republicans Sen. Henri Martin, Sen. Rob Sampson and Harding said it was not enough to remove Cheng from his position and continue paying him through 2026.
'So, he still will have a $442,187 a year state-taxpayer funded job, just with a different job title? Do we have that correct? Unbelievable. Chancellor Cheng should have resigned long ago. Republicans demanded that he do so. Gov. Lamont should have demanded that resignation.
'Instead, Gov. Lamont shrugged. … Instead, Gov. Lamont has kept Chancellor Cheng on the state payroll making nearly half a million dollars. In doing so, Gov. Lamont continues to minimize the culture of ethical lapses, scandals and mismanagement in his administration as mere 'small ball,'' they said in a statement.
When brought before legislators at the state Capitol, Cheng apologized and later moved to change system spending policies.
'I acknowledge that my actions have raised serious concerns about financial oversight and transparency,' Cheng told lawmakers at a special forum to review the spending. 'For this, I take personal responsibility, and I am extremely, extremely sorry. I also want to apologize to members of the General Assembly, who have consistently supported our system and our students. … For my part in this, I do sincerely apologize. … I recognize that trust is not just given. It has to be earned through action, and it cannot be earned simply through words.'
Democratic Reps. Derek Slapp and Gregg Haddad noted the system's importance in the state.
'We understand and appreciate the Board of Regents' decision,' Slapp and Haddad said. 'As they look for a new leader, we believe strongly that it is important to prioritize student outcomes, meet the needs of a rapidly changing workforce, and act as good stewards of state resources. The system needs stability and the stakes are high. Higher Education is the largest economic engine in Connecticut, so our economy and future of many students will be impacted by whoever the Board chooses as the next leader.'
Cheng was appointed as chancellor by the Board of Regents in May 2021. He had previously served as campus director of the University of Connecticut Stamford, a role to which he was appointed in 2016. He also served as a member of the English department faculty there.
He is also the author of two Chinese historical novels, Sons of Heaven (2002) and Deep in the Mountains (2007).
Plans to replace Cheng have not been announced.
Courant reporter Christopher Keating contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
26 minutes ago
- Axios
San Antonio City Council election results show changing politics
San Antonio City Council District 1 incumbent Sukh Kaur held on to her seat in Saturday's runoff election, in which three new city councilmembers were also elected in a political shakeup. Why it matters: A new generation of councilmembers can help shape a range of transformative city plans as they work with new mayor Gina Ortiz Jones over the next four years — but they'll also have to contend with a possible budget deficit and cuts to services. By the numbers: Kaur beat out conservative neighborhood leader Patty Gibbons 65% to 35% in the downtown area district, which now also includes some neighborhoods north of Loop 410. The big picture: The San Antonio City Council could have a starker political divide. It'sgaining one more progressive and one more conservative member, who are taking over seats previously held by business-friendly and moderate Democrats. Ortiz Jones is expected to lead as a progressive. The latest: In District 6 on the Far West Side, Ric Galvan (50.1%) beat Kelly Ann Gonzalez (49.9%) by just 25 votes. Both have progressive backgrounds running in a district that has previously elected Republicans and business-friendly Democrats. In District 8 on the Northwest Side, Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (57%) beat Paula McGee (43%). Meza Gonzalez is the former chief of staff to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, while McGee had experience on city boards and support from the Republican Party of Bexar County. In District 9 on the North Side, Misty Spears (57%) beat Angi Taylor Aramburu (43%), putting this more conservative district back in Republican hands for the first time in eight years. Spears has been the director of constituent services for Republican Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody. Flashback: The four districts headed to the June runoff after no one earned more than 50% of the vote in the May 3 election. District 4 on the Southwest Side is newly represented by Edward Mungia, a former staff member in the office. He won outright in the May election.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Biggest Boondoggles in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill
The House reconciliation bill — officially known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — is extraordinary in how much it robs from the poor to boost the rich. Its tax cuts for the wealthy are financed by cuts to health care coverage (both in Medicaid and Obamacare) that will help Republicans swell the ranks of the uninsured by 16 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the Big Beautiful Bill is not just an ugly tax bill where society's less fortunate are made to sacrifice for the benefit of the wealthiest. It's also a spending bill that steers hundreds of billions of dollars into new pet projects. This is financed with debt. All in, the BBB will spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over 10 years, according to CBO, likely increasing the national debt by $3 billion when interest payments are included. The bill's spending has angered budget hawks in the Senate like Rand Paul (R.-Ky.). It has been part of the public split between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who calls the bill a 'disgusting abomination' that will squander any supposed savings imposed by DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Conservative budget analysts are sounding the alarm: 'This inability to set priorities is going to bring a debt crisis,' Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute tells Rolling Stone. In fact, the bill would create so much new debt that it risks triggering a mechanism called 'sequestration,' which would impose deep, mandatory cuts to Medicare. These cuts to the health care of America's seniors would start next year, and rise to half-a-trillion dollars over ten years. The BBB's spending provisions have received far less scrutiny than the tax cuts and safety-net slashes. But the bill lards new funds on a range of already-fat-cats — from the military-industrial complex and Big Tech to private prisons and construction concerns. Below we survey the biggest boondoggles of the Big Beautiful Bill: The BBB proposes spending nearly $50 billion for construction of Trump's border wall with Mexico. Sen. Paul, in an appearance on Face the Nation last week, accused the administration of waste. He cited an existing Customs and Border Patrol estimate that wall construction should cost only about $6.5 billion over 1,000 miles: 'They have inflated the cost of the wall eightfold,' said Paul. (After his TV hit, CPB appears to have scrubbed the construction cost estimate Paul quoted from its website.) Paul even questioned the need for more wall, at all, given his view that Trump has 'essentially stopped the border flow without new money and without new legislation.' Offering just a small taste of the anticipated building bonanza, the Trump administration awarded a $70 million, 7-mile wall-construction contract to California-based Granite Construction in March. The bill includes $45 billion for 'Adult Alien Detention Capacity' and 'Family Residential Centers.' This funding would enable the administration to ramp up its mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants. As the nation has seen from recent high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at restaurants, this involves ripping productive members out of society and making them wards of the state, at great public cost, until they can be deported. The money would be a boon to private prison contractors and construction firms. For a taste of where this is headed, consider that the administration has already inked a 15-year, $1 billion deal with GEO Group to house ICE detainees at Delaney Hall, a 1,000 bed facility in Newark, New Jersey. The mayor of the city was arrested by ICE amid a recent protest at the facility. The private prison company is well connected to the Trump administration. As Rolling Stone has reported, Attorney General Pam Bondi is a former lobbyist for GEO Group, which also made a $500,000 donation to the Trump inaugural committee. A GEO subsidiary donated $1.3 million to a Super PAC that backed Trump's 2024 election. The BBB puts up nearly $25 billion for the Golden Dome. The satellite-based missile defense project builds off the branding of Israel's 'Iron Dome,' a ground-based defensive system that can intercept rockets and missiles launched from local militants or state actors like Iran. 'To the extent we match Iron Dome technology, we will be well protected from a missile attack from Canada or Mexico,' says Riedl of the Manhattan Institute, sarcastically. 'But not necessarily from Russia, North Korea or China.' In reality the Golden Dome appears to be Trump's revival of the Ronald Reagan era Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI — a hugely expensive, largely ineffective space-based missile-defense system derided in the 1980s as 'Star Wars.' 'Ultimately this is $25 billion more for SDI' says Rieidl. 'This is a noble idea — but a lot of spending up until now hasn't brought a lot of success.' Trump envisions the BBB as a downpayment on a total investment of $175 million. The Golden Dome promises to be a golden goose for defense contractors. SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Trump's billionaire benefactor Elon Musk, who's currently feuding with Trump, is reportedly vying for a contract. So are the Peter Thiel-linked tech firm Palantir and longtime military-industrial heavyweights like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Including the Golden Dome, the Big Beautiful Bill increases America's Pentagon spending by a colossal $150 billion. 'This is a bill from the military-industrial complex advocates who are padding the military budget,' according to Paul, who has long criticized the Defense Department for failing to pass every audit to which it's been subjected. Budgets are moral documents. And metaphorically people often speak of the tradeoff between 'guns and butter' — or programs that defend the public and those that keep the public out of misery. The guns side of the Big Beautiful Bill is financed entirely by cuts to butter. The bill strips $128 billion in funding to the states for the SNAP food assistance program that keeps American families from going hungry. It also aims to avoid another $92 billion in spending by knocking people out of the program with red tape and work requirements, including for parents of argues that the Pentagon should be forced to achieve cost efficiencies before it receives any new federal dollars. 'One of DOGE's great failures was essentially ignoring the enormous waste and cost overruns inside the Pentagon. There is a reason the Defense Department cannot pass an audit. There is so much waste. It has significant cost overruns — particularly in government contracts and procurement — that absolutely must be addressed before we further increase defense spending,' says the Manhattan institute fellow. The House bill steers new money to more than a dozen weapons systems, including many dogged by cost overruns, construction delays, performance issues, and questions of combat capability. On the airplane side, this list includes: $4.5 billion for the B-21 Raider, the Air Force's newest long-range stealth bomber, which cost nearly $700 million per aircraft to produce. The two-person Northrup Gruman-built plane may be poorly suited to modern warfighting, where swarms of unmanned drones are becoming the dominant air threat. $3.2 billion for the Boeing-built F-15EX. The planes cost $90 million a pop, making them more expensive than the notoriously costly F-35A. Unlike that fighter, the F-15EX is not a stealth aircraft. And production has been snarled by manufacturing problems. A recent federal assessment put it bluntly: 'Boeing has experienced increased quality deficiencies.' Ships include: $4.6 billion for Virginia Class submarines. The nuclear submarine program has a reported cost overrun of $17 billion and has delivered boats massively behind schedule. The contractors are General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries. The Pentagon already has 23 of these submarines. $2.1 billion for San Antonio Class 'amphibious transport docks.' This ship was put on production pause in 2023 because of massive cost overruns. The boats are supposed to land Marines into onshore combat, but have been found by DOD testers to only be suitable 'in a benign environment' because the ship is 'not effective, suitable and not survivable in a combat situation.' Huntington Ingalls Industries is the contractor. The Pentagon already has 13 of these boats. More from Rolling Stone Donald Trump Is Destroying the Economy and Waging War on the Poor Trump Moves to Deploy National Guard to L.A. Over ICE Protests 'Dejected' Trump Says Relationship With Musk Is Over; Calls Him a 'Big-Time Drug Addict': Report Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
As Trump administration aims to boost mining, drilling and fishing, Spokane office dedicated to workers' safety remains in jeopardy
Jun. 7—WASHINGTON — Among the more than 150 executive actions President Donald Trump has taken since assuming office in January are orders that aim to boost oil and gas drilling, mining and commercial fishing in the United States. But in response to another one of those executive orders, which created the "Department of Government Efficiency" and directed federal agencies to cut costs, the Department of Health and Human Services has effectively shuttered a Spokane facility that for decades has helped prevent harm to workers in those same high-risk industries. On March 31, employees at the Spokane Research Lab of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, were notified that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had decided to terminate them in accordance with Trump's order and as part of his agency's "broader strategy to improve its efficiency and effectiveness to make America healthier." Tristan Victoroff, an epidemiologist in NIOSH's Western States Division, said he and his colleagues thought they might escape the Trump administration's sweeping effort to slash the federal workforce because their work supports enterprises the president says he wants to grow. "The industries that we work in, particularly with the mining program and the Western States Division — oil and gas, wildland firefighting, commercial fishing, mining — our mission does support those workers," said Victoroff, a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1916. "We had considered ourselves to be in line with the administration's priorities, and so it really did come as a surprise when they essentially eliminated NIOSH." Union members in Spokane were notified on May 2 that they had been placed on paid administrative leave and their jobs would be eliminated on July 2. That termination is temporarily on hold after courts in California ruled later in May that the Trump's administration's mass firing of federal workers likely violated the Constitution. Facing a separate lawsuit from a West Virginia coal miner and backlash from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Kennedy reinstated about 300 of the 900 fired NIOSH employees in May. That move didn't officially spare any workers in Spokane, but researchers in NIOSH's Spokane Mining Research Division said they were told by their supervisors to return to work on an as-needed basis to wind down projects while technically remaining on leave. "We're kind of in an in-between," said Casey Stazick, a union steward and materials engineer in the Spokane Mining Research Division. "We got our termination notices that said we're put on administrative leave unless told otherwise by a supervisor. Then, right around the same time, there was also an order that came down saying that we were critical employees, even though we're still getting fired." Victoroff said his colleagues in the Western States Division all remain on administrative leave and at risk of losing their jobs, pending the outcome of the lawsuit filed by AFGE and other organizations. After the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on May 30 upheld a lower court's injunction that blocked the mass firing, the Trump administration immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, which could either rule on the case or let the lower court's ruling stand. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, didn't respond to questions from The Spokesman-Review about the rationale for the termination or any plans to rescind it. In response to an earlier inquiry, HHS said on May 22 that Kennedy "has been working hard to ensure that the critical functions under NIOSH remain intact" and that "ensuring the health and safety of our workforce remains a top priority for the Department." In the May 2 emails, reviewed by The Spokesman-Review, NIOSH employees were told their termination "does not reflect directly on your service, performance, or conduct" and was happening because "your duties have been identified as either unnecessary or virtually identical to duties being performed elsewhere in the agency." Contrary to that explanation, documents and emails obtained by The Spokesman-Review show that Kennedy eliminated entire divisions of NIOSH, leaving virtually no one to focus on safety for hard-rock miners, oil and gas workers, commercial fishermen, farmworkers or wildland firefighters. That approach seems to have enabled the department to sidestep a federal law that requires an agency to define a "competitive area" subject to downsizing and gives priority to military veterans and those with longer tenure. Most of the NIOSH jobs that Kennedy restored are based in West Virginia and Ohio, two states dominated by Republicans in Congress, and focus on high-profile programs including screening for black lung disease in coal miners and monitoring the health of firefighters who responded to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Brendan Demich, a union steward with AFGE Local 1916 and an engineer at NIOSH's facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said the department seems to have restored only a limited number of jobs that have drawn attention from the public, labor unions and Congress. Kennedy announced in March that he would slash his department's workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 and combine multiple agencies under a new "Administration for a Healthy America." In a class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday, HHS employees who lost their jobs allege the department knew it was using "hopelessly error-ridden" data to carry out the mass termination in March. In a court filing on Monday, lawyers for HHS said the department had complied with a West Virginia judge's order to restore jobs at a NIOSH office in Morgantown, West Virginia, but an attorney representing the miner who brought the case said those employees haven't been given the tools they need to do their jobs. The West Virginia case does not apply to employees in the Spokane facility. A report released on Monday by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., points out that NIOSH's current annual budget of $362.8 million represents just 0.2% of the discretionary part of the HHS budget. That's about 0.005% of the total federal budget, and NIOSH research has saved about $1 billion each year, according to the senator's report. "The Trump administration's unfathomable decision to gut NIOSH and fire nearly every person at the Spokane Research Lab is a devastating and shortsighted move that puts workers everywhere at risk," Murray said in a statement that accompanied the report. "These thoughtless firings don't just risk Americans' health and safety in the workplace today, but threaten decades of progress toward preventing workplace hazards. Researchers in Spokane who have dedicated their careers to protecting workers across the country are being kicked to the curb because Donald Trump and his conspiracy theorist Health Secretary don't have a clue what NIOSH does and don't care to learn." Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., also voiced support for the Spokane researchers in a statement on Thursday. "The dedicated team at NIOSH's Spokane facility conducts research that protects miners and other Americans with dangerous jobs," Cantwell said. "Closing NIOSH will mean more blue-collar workers suffering debilitating diseases from chemical exposure or dying in accidents. We should be increasing the Spokane Research Lab's budget to fund more innovation and safety, not shutting them down." Trump's budget request to Congress, released May 30, includes $73.2 million for NIOSH — about 80% lower than the current fiscal year — including $66.5 million for mining research, $5.5 million for the agency's national cancer registry for firefighters and $1.2 million for mesothelioma research. According to an email to NIOSH employees from the agency's director, obtained by The Spokesman-Review, Trump's request doesn't include funding for the Western States Division in Spokane. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said in a brief interview on Wednesday that ensuring safety for miners and oil and gas workers is "incredibly important" and emphasized that the president's budget request is only a suggestion. It will ultimately be Congress, he said, that decides how much funding NIOSH gets. "These are things that were done by the DOGE people, and they were people who didn't have the same experience of dealing with the overall budget as we do up here," Risch said, noting that employees at the Department of Government Efficiency have admitted that they have made mistakes. "When we sat down with the DOGE guys, they said, 'Look, we were given a job. We went and did this job. We understand you guys are experts on this. When we're done, it's going to be up to you,'" Risch said. "What we're going to do is take a healthy look at what these jobs entail. It's going to be looked at seriously and responsibly through the appropriations process." Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been less patient with Kennedy and DOGE, which was spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk before his public falling-out with Trump last week. In an interview on Wednesday, the Washington senator said she has repeatedly tried and failed to reach the HHS secretary's team, joking that they must have also fired everyone who answered the phones. "We are looking at all the options, obviously, for next year," Murray said. "Writing our appropriations bills, looking at language, working in a bipartisan way, to make sure that funds that we, Congress, decide are appropriated will actually have to be implemented by the administration." The Spokane Research Lab also has support in the House from Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Spokane Republican who has written two letters calling on Kennedy to reconsider the termination of its employees and visited the facility on Tuesday. Baumgartner's office didn't say whether he had received a response to either letter from the HHS secretary. The Spokane facility's nationwide reach has earned it support from other influential Republicans in Congress, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on March 20, Rounds told Kennedy that terminating NIOSH jobs in Spokane had resulted in the loss of a $1.2 million mine safety grant to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, which also relies on NIOSH for "critical technical support." "We need to protect our miners," Kennedy replied, pledging to work with Rounds' office. "We need to protect them because they are the future of our country." In a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Murkowski asked Trump's nominee to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — a regulatory agency that relies on NIOSH research — how he would do his job without data from NIOSH. The nominee, David Keeling, replied that it would be difficult, but he would consider replacing NIOSH with "private entities." Asked why she thinks the Trump administration eliminated the NIOSH jobs, Murkowski told The Spokesman-Review on Thursday, "They were looking for cuts, and as we've seen in many departments, it seems somewhat indiscriminate and arbitrary." "I think what we're working through still is some of the DOGE recommendations, where you're not fully appreciating the role and the function of many of these federal employees," she said. "My hope is that they're going to be actually looking at this now and realizing we need this information." Murkowski said she has stressed to Kennedy how important NIOSH is for Alaska's commercial fisheries. Another concern, she said, is that valuable researchers could choose to leave public service while their jobs are in limbo. "When you are sending the signal to that federal employee that maybe what you've been doing is not what we want to continue, people are making their own determinations and leaving, and now we've got all these vacancies," Murkowski said. "I think you're going to see a resettling. I just don't know when." After earning an engineering degree at the Colorado School of Mines, Stazick worked in the private sector before she took a job with NIOSH at the Spokane Research Laboratory in 2020. She knew it would mean taking a pay cut but liked working to improve workers' safety, not just a company's bottom line. "It was a really big incentive for me to go and take a big pay cut and go into the public sector," said Stazick, 27. "With this engineering degree that I could be using to make someone a bunch of money, it just felt nice that the work I was doing was affecting people's lives and safety." NIOSH named Stazick one of its "rising stars" in 2022, and she developed her expertise in the corrosion of metal support structures for underground mines. She worked with miners to replace bolts that were corroding within six months — causing roof failures — with more durable materials. "It's just upsetting," she said of the mass layoffs. "I'm at a career transition point again. I had found something I was really passionate about. So, yeah, the whole thing has been upsetting." Stazick's colleague Brad Seymour, another mining engineer and union steward, is at the other end of his career. When he started at the Spokane facility in 1986, it was run by the now-defunct U.S. Bureau of Mines. He planned to work for about one more year, to make it an even 40. "The thing that's discouraging about it is that I don't think it was discussed well within the leadership," Seymour said of the mass firing. "So it came as a shock to everybody. And because of that, the cuts were not handled in a very thoughtful manner." Seymour has dedicated his career to helping miners prevent collapses and "rock bursts" caused by the extreme pressure in deep underground mines. That's in the interest of mining companies, but he said the engineers working for companies don't have the time or the incentives to do the kind of research that happens at NIOSH, which benefits the whole industry. Coeur d'Alene-based Hecla Mining was forced to close its Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan for more than a year and spend over $30 million in improvements after accidents killed two miners and injured seven more in 2011. A spokesman for Hecla declined to comment on NIOSH research. Early in his career, Seymour worked to improve cemented backfill methods — where miners fill underground voids with mill tailings and other material to prevent cave-ins — at the Cannon Mine in Wenatchee. Those improvements, he said, were adopted by mining companies around the world and helped fuel a gold-mining boom in Nevada in the 1990s. Just like those benefits to the mining industry, the negative effects of ending NIOSH research could take years to be borne out, the workers in Spokane warned. Art Miller, who retired from the Spokane Mining Research Division at the end of 2020, started his career by working to reduce diesel emissions that were harming miners deep underground, then the government paid for him to go back to school and earn a doctorate in particle science. He became the resident expert in silica dust, the airborne form of the mineral also called quartz, which is abundant in hard-rock mines. When inhaled, it can cause silicosis, an incurable lung disease that leads to severe breathing problems and sometimes to death. "When you're drilling and blasting and crushing these materials, you're going to have a lot of silica in the air, but you don't know how much, because there's no way to measure it easily," Miller said. "You can take a sample and send it to a lab, which is the current, standard way of doing it, but most people often don't bother to do that, because it's a pain in the butt and takes a long time. By the time they get the results back, it might not be meaningful to what they were doing the day that it happened." For years, Miller sought support to develop a portable, real-time silica monitor, similar to the gas monitors commonly worn by coal miners. He finally secured funding soon before he retired, and hired an engineer to continue the work. The project had made good progress, Miller said, but that work is "man-on-the-moon kind of research" that the mining industry won't fund on its own. "The private sector is dollar-driven," he said. "There's no way they're going to do it unless they absolutely know it's going to make money for them. Normally and historically, they're not motivated to do it." The work of preventing diseases like silicosis also falls on the public sector, Miller said, because the worst symptoms often don't emerge until years after a worker retires. While people can die from silicosis — 12,900 do each year, a 2019 study found — it more commonly causes disability and makes affected people more susceptive to other diseases, like tuberculosis. "They usually just have a horrible life and maybe die early, so it's not a real problem for the operator, for the mining guy," Miller said. "He's not going to see the ugliness of it. That's going to be when they're my age, and they're having trouble breathing, and they end up dying 10 years earlier than they otherwise would have. By then, they're long gone from where they worked, and there's no responsibility tied to the people who put them through that." Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
