On Friday, March 7, Eastern students gathered in the campus mall to protest executive orders that have limited federal funding of academic research.
“We ultimately are protesting against the Trump administration’s recent many orders and many decisions that impact and are trying to silence science nationwide,” said Grace Barthelmess, a graduate student in the biology department.
The Stand Up for Science protest took place across the country. The protesters at Eastern participated in chants, sign holding, and an open mic.
Barthelmess pointed out that this protest comes shortly after Trump’s post on Truth Social claiming that federal funding will stop for schools that allow “illegal protests.”
“We’re still going to show up anyways and be loud about it,” Barthelmess said.
Barthelmess helped to organize the protest along with Julianna Paulsen, who is also a graduate student in biology. They brought along three copies of a petition to deliver to representatives.
The petitions called to end censorship in science as well as to expand funding, rather than freeze it. The petitions will be delivered to 5th District Rep. Michael Baumgartner, Sen. Patty Murray, and Sen. Maria Cantwell.
The leaked list of the National Science Foundation’s supposedly banned words have affected student’s research on campus, including that of Sam Kennel, a graduate student studying climate change’s impact on forest health and small mammals.
“I can no longer use the word ‘climate change’ in my research,” Kennel said. “My research is informing how we can create reliant forests in the face of climate change and how we can help assist the small mammals adapt to climate change.”
Community members also joined students in the protest. Heather McKean, a retired professor from Eastern’s department of biology, came with Becky Stevens and Stan Goff, both retired archaeologists.
Goff said that two of their four kids have lost their federal jobs.
All three said they’ve had to protest many times throughout their lives.
“We are the Boomers,” McKean said. “When we were your age, we were out protesting the war.”
Many attending the protest took the opportunity to speak when the mic was open, including McKean.
“And I would say, I hate to say this, but I’ve never been so frightened in my 72 years as I am now,” McKean said.
Mechanical engineering student Josiah Morgan took the opportunity to speak on the open mic.
“10 years ago, telling a lie in the political stage in America was suicide. It was political suicide,” Morgan said. “And now it has become the norm. It has become a tool for them to control us.”
