By DANIELLE GARRAND

ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR

The government sequester has been splashed across the newspapers and relentlessly discussed on cable news, but let us be honest: Most of us have not really been paying attention.

As college students, many of us do not pay attention to current events other than The New York Times updates on our iPhones. Only an elite few care about the wheeling and dealing that happen in the government. On March 1, however, the government sequester was put into effect. It is about time that we take notice and inform ourselves of the effects it has on each of us.

For those who do not know, the sequester is a slew of cuts to federal spending that took effect on March 1. It was originally a part of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), also known as the debt ceiling compromise, and it was meant to spur the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the “supercommittee,” to succesfully cut $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. The supercommittee was not so super, however, and congress did not pass a law by December 23, 2011, leading to this little arrangement.

When we hear something on TV about the government or the deficit that we will have to pay off in taxes for 200 years to come, it does not really register that the government’s decisions affect us. The across-the-board cuts to nearly every domestic program and defense program, however, do cause quite a stir in our lives; we just have not seen it yet. Although, luckily, very few mandatory programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and welfare will be affected, others are. All of these cuts add up to $1.5 trillion in total, or $109.3 billion every year from 2014-2021, according to The Washington Post.

Though the vast majority of cuts are in defense spending, over $40 billion in 2013, every government organization is hit, affecting many college students’ future careers and everyday life.

Do you want to work with kids in underprivileged areas through HeadStart? Too bad. HeadStart is losing by $406 million, pushing 70,000 needy kids out of the program. Do you want to go overseas and work as a doctor in third world countries? Sorry, those programs were cut by $433 million. It might not have the money for supplies with a $375 million cut in FEMA’s disaster relief budget. Not to mention the fact that if you have ever dreamt of working in the government, you simply cannot. Government agencies are on a hiring lockdown and are not allowed to bring any new people into the department.

Even if you are not directly affected, someone you see on campus or in class is. Someone like me.I have always been one of those people who changes the channel as soon as anything about politics came on and brushes off government happenings, but since my mother works for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is time that I paid attention.

My mother, Anne Fenn, has been an employee of the EPA for over 30 years as the Federal Facilities program manager. As an employee of the government, her salary was frozen and will be until 2016, not permitting even the most nominal pay increase due to increased cost of living or bonuses.

“It is not fair that this is putting the cuts on the backs of government workers. We work hard,” Fenn said

A vegetative salary, however, is not the only monetary affect upon the EPA. The department requires that all of its employees take as many as 22 furlough days, or days in which employees must take off from work without pay. After negotiations with the union, AFGE, of which my mother is a part, EPA reached an agreement of six furlough days from April to June. Now, to us these days may seem like a gift — most college kids would love six extra days off — but to government employees with families to support, it results in smaller salaries and more stress.

If the maximum amount of furlough days were taken, EPA employees would have a salary reduction of 20 percent. The kicker is that employees are not allowed to get another job to supplement the income; they just have to wait around and watch their pocketbooks get lighter. My mom also said that morale is declining. “The reason why people are upset is that we have nothing to do with this. We weren’t a part of the discussion between the president and Congress.”

In addition to the frustration about salary, my mother worries that the hiring freeze is decreasing innovation by keeping the freshest minds out of the department, as well as pushing those close to retirement out. However, she said, “I love my job. I wouldn’t quit for a long time. We are just going to have to do the same thing the government is doing in our homes: cut back.”

The sequester affects all of us, be it your teachers, friends, family or the government-funded programs you love or rely on. It is time to pay attention.

Danielle Garrand, FCRH ’16, is a psychology and communication and media studies major from Londonderry, NH.