Tuesday marked the second week of a partial government shutdown, keeping Americans from visiting national parks, monuments and, in many cases, their jobs.

With the exception of several required positions, furloughed government workers across the country have gone without pay since Oct. 1.

Although the shut down is a country-wide issue, many college students remain unaffected.

Kent State spokesman Eric Mansfield said the shutdown will affect some federally mandated research and loans, but Kent State is “open for business” at this point in the semester.

“We’ve seen no negative impact yet,” Mansfield said. “It’s the middle of the semester. Things that are in motion are in motion.”

Although the university may not be affected as a whole, some Kent State students have been furloughed from paid internships and other jobs.

Ryan Coennen, junior aeronautics major, has been forced to temporarily leave his paid internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Coennen said he feels the shut down has given him several financial and academic problems.

“I was supposed to be taking 13 credits including my paid internship, but now I only have two classes and nothing else to do,” Coennen said. “I thought about looking for a job, but I don’t know when the shutdown will end, and I would have to leave the job for my internship.”

Coennen said he feels the shutdown has hurt his chances of landing a job with NASA after graduation.

“I was really hoping to turn this into a career,” Coennen said. “But not being there now takes away my chance of proving to them that I’m worthy of hiring.”

Jonathan Herman, senior aeronautics major and another intern at NASA, took off all classes to complete his NASA internship, which has left him sitting at home during the shutdown.

“On the bright side, I’ve been able to catch up on a lot of my TV shows,” Herman said. “But I’ve had a lot of down time that I could have been doing something more productive.”

Herman said although he’s used to being a “poor college student,” and didn’t feel financially burdened by the shutdown, he feels his work at NASA may suffer.

“The tasks that I had been given to complete during the internship may not be completed because of the two and a half weeks of absence,” Herman said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to jump back in with my work and work faster to get everything done. “

Contact Drew Parker at [email protected].