In the 2010s, the NSF repeatedly faced tight budgets that, given the agency's interest in supporting new research facilities, meant it had to make tough choices about its spending. In 2017, after years of considering closing Arecibo outright and scientists expressing their concern about that possibility, the NSF decided to slash its support of the observatory and build a partnership to pick up the slack. That's how the University of Central Florida came to have a hand in the facility.
