The Hatchet’s editorial board discusses the recent death of legislation that would have ended National Science Foundation contributions to political science research.

At many colleges, Saturday nights are reserved for beer pong and bar hopping. On Saturday, it was clear from Twitter and Facebook feeds that many GW students had traded in the ping pong balls for C-SPAN and health care reform. Politics, and by association, political science, often drives this University.

While health care will continue to be debated in the Senate, there is at least one piece of legislation GW can celebrate the death of. Last month, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed an amendment that would effectively cut funding for political science from the National Science Foundation. This would have been especially detrimental to GW’s political science department, which has received more than $1 million in the past decade from the NSF.