March 7th March for Science

This month, the Trump administration has begun an attack on public research: freezing federal grants, undermining university budgets, censoring research on public health and climate change, and targeting workers at the NIH, CDC, NSF, and FDA. Most significantly, on Friday, February 7th, the NIH announced that it would be sharply lowering its indirect cost rate, a reckless divestment from public higher education that would disrupt scientific innovation and economic growth. Though the research funding freeze and NIH cuts have been temporarily halted, this is not the last time the Trump administration will attack public research. On Friday, March 7th, academic workers and researchers across the country will take part in a national march for science to defend publicly funded research in the United States.

As part of that march for science, graduate students, faculty, undergraduate students, staff members, academic workers and concerned public members are rallying on March 7th at UCSB. This march will have researchers and students talking to us about how these orders affect everybody at UC (from undergraduates to staff) as well as the broader community. We will call on local and state legislators to not preemptively comply with these orders. Standing up against such upheavals is the first step to preventing the systemic dissolution of our longstanding scientific institutions.