NRAO Ham Radio Project

Welp, it’s been 3 weeks since I was asked to leave the Nation Radio Astronomy Observatory as it’s Ham Radio Project Lead. As one of my mentors said a long time ago “if you must burn bridges, do so judiciously.” So here goes.

First of all, the primary reason for my separation from the project was because of the racist, fascist takeover of the government. And this happened because white folks are scared of sharing and are desperately trying to not be just another minority in this county. The government is now run like a reality show, with a semi-competent, evil, insecure leader at its helm, who has surrounded himself with unserious lickspittles and sycophants who proudly know nothing of the agencies they lead. With these people, ignorance is more than bliss, it’s a badge of honor.

As a result, the National Science foundation, NRAO’s “parent company”, has been cut severely and scientists are being fired, quitting or retiring in disgust, or being summarily dismissed in processes that heretofore were only reserved for employees who engaged in illegal activities on the job. Other NRAO projects that served as on-ramps for underrepresented, budding scientists and engineers have been cut severely or simply terminated leaving students stranded without means of completing their work or degrees.

Here’s a video I made after my group, the NRAO Office of Diversity and Inclusion, was disbanded and my supervisor unceremoniously fired.

Fast forward a month and was told that I need to leave because the cost per student was higher than other ARDC-funded projects. I believe this critique is specious for the following reasons:

• The project deliverable was curricula and the learner cohorts were essentially focus groups for testing the curricula we developed.
• The project was a prototype. Prototypes are always costly. Had plans been made to bring in more than the 3 cohorts (2 initially and 1 in the no cost extension), the project could have been managed to leverage “economies of scale” thereby reducing time and materials costs.
• The project paid students a stipend to learn about the EMS and get their ham radio license. Most amateur radio license classes don’t pay students–in fact, most ask the learners to pay some nominal fee for the chance to learn. Any comparison with other projects must take this this difference into account.

So here’s the skinny on why I believe I was forced to leave 1 month before my contract end:

• My ARDC-funded project was explicitly a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) project. “With this project, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) aims to meet the challenge of educating emerging generations about the electromagnetic spectrum through an interactive, substantive experience with amateur radio, with particular focus on broadening the excitement of amateur radio among BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students.” see Why Ham Radio Matters
• The administrative cost of maintaining my position as parttime at 3-hours per week was likely high relative to my pay rate.
• Bad optics. I was told it was hard for some folk to see me still working on a privately funded project even as many full-time employees were being sacked.

I enjoyed working on this project. I want nothing but the best for alumni, advisors, and my former colleagues. However, I’m not willing to be sacrificed on someone’s altar of misleading metrics. I place the blame where it belongs–with the monstrous “leadership” in white house.

A more professional approach would have been to simply ask for my resignation. 73s