A government shutdown may not have an immediate impact on students, but it could affect them as it continues.

The government’s failure to meet a budget deadline Monday night meant some departments would not be funded and hundreds of thousands of federal jobs would be furloughed until lawmakers compromise. While university students should “probably not be concerned” by a short-term shutdown, political science professor Scot Schraufnagel said there could be implications for students in the long term, including difficulties with federal grants and finding work.

“The longer it stays shut down, the broader the implications,” Schraufnagel said.

Among the federal grants that could be affected would be Pell Grants, which are need-based. According to Student Financial Aid’s website, niu.edu/fa/types/grants.shtml, students received awards of $605 to $5,645 through Pell from 2013-2014.

Anna Miner, junior rhetoric and public communication major, said she thinks “when in doubt, don’t freak out” when it comes to the government shutdown.

“I don’t think it’s going to have that big of [an impact] on us in the end because I think it’s going to be a whole lot of stress and distress, but it’s not going to boil down to much in the end,” she said.

Freshman acting major Kris Downing said she thought the shutdown would affect financial aid, but she isn’t concerned.

“I think it’ll last longer than the last one,” she said. “I think it’ll last a couple months.”

The United States’ longest shutdown lasted 21 days, from Dec. 15, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996, under then-President Bill Clinton.

Schraufnagel said the shutdown could affect more than financial aid: If the economy slows and businesses suffer, students could have trouble finding work.

“A lot of private businesses work with the national government,” he said. “All the businesses that do work, their orders get put on hold. [It has the] potential to slow down the economy, which could affect hiring recent college graduates.”

President Barack Obama has blamed the shutdown on Repbulican lawmakers’ refusal to accept “Obamacare.”

“This shutdown is not about deficits. It’s not about budgets,” Obama said. “This shutdown is about rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don’t have it. This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days. I know it’s strange that one party would make keeping people uninsured the centerpiece of their agenda, but that apparently is what it is.”

Schraufnagel said it would be difficult to determine how long the shutdown will last.