President Donald Trump paused funding for grants and other financial aid programs, nationwide, in late January, according to a memo released by The White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

Stuart Canton, the instructional assistant in Cosumnes River College’s Reading and Writing Center, said he was required to pause hires on federal work study students for a week during the nationwide freeze.

“Everyone was worried about not getting their financial aid for that week,” Canton said. “Financial aid had us stop the hiring process, which was a frustrating block because that delayed hiring processes for about a week, and I wasn’t able to pay my employees with federal money.”

While the pause was brief, federal work study students in all tutoring centers on campus were unable to work during this time. Scarlett Cobb, a tutor for the Reading and Writing Center, said it was a scary pause for her and her family.

“I’m a mom and I was expecting to be able to start work way earlier,” Cobb said. “I already don’t work a whole lot, so that extra money wasn’t in my pocket and I was nervous about keeping my daughter fed.”

With a recent executive order from President Trump laying groundwork to abolish the Department of Education, that puts the possibility of something more severe than a brief pause to funding, said CRC Public Information Officer Kristie West.

“We luckily aren’t experiencing any cuts yet,” West said. “There is a lot of concern about this happening again in the near future.”

Tutoring services are doing their best to try and keep up, but the unpredictability of the situation has made it difficult, Canton said.

“I can’t make any assumptions so we will just have to wait and see,” Canton said.

Cobb said she is nervous about another pause and is trying to prepare just in case.

“That would obviously be another hardship,” Cobb said. “I have been trying to keep some money in my pocket, but it would not be a good situation.