By ALAN COHEN/Salem Reporter
SALEM — At least 500 people gathered Friday at the Stand Up for Science march at the Oregon Capitol to protest President Donald Trump’s cuts in federal funding for science and research.
It was one of many demonstrations Friday across the country as a response to Trump’s orders to reduce budgets for the National Institutes of Health and other federal research programs. In Newport, approximately 100 people demonstrated along U.S. Highway 101 at Newport City Hall.
Students and scientists were among the demonstrators. That included Brittany Barker, an assistant professor at Oregon State University who called for additional funding for research and introduced the other speakers.
Among the speakers were Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, and Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis.
Gomberg said he opposed Trump’s recent firings of federal employees, especially those in the science sectors.
Trump is firing employees at the federal Departments of Agriculture and Forestry and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Gomberg said “who are helping us better understand ocean science.”
Gomberg spoke against Trump’s recent threats of tariffs and the uncertainty about the future of many federal programs after the recent federal funding freeze.
“We’re trying to put a budget together across the street (at the Capitol) and 31 percent of that budget comes from federal funds,” Gomberg said.
Federal research investments drive innovation and promote the creation of stable jobs across the country, Salinas said.
“Science is not a partisan issue. It’s about progress,” she said.
Trump and Elon Musk are “dismantling America’s scientific enterprise” by falsely calling scientific research funding “waste, fraud and abuse,” Salinas said.
Their threats to federal funding and employee cuts could severely impact lifesaving treatment for chronic diseases, mitigation of climate change impacts, affordable access to electricity, early warning systems for tsunamis, wildfire prevention and clean and reliable transportation, according to Salinas.
Oregon Health and Science University in Portland could lose about $80 million in funding and its Knight Cancer Institute could shut down over 400 active clinical trials as a consequence of the funding cuts, according to Salinas. The cuts could also impact the future opportunities of students seeking to enter scientific fields, she said.
Demonstrators chanted “human needs, not corporate greed” and “out of the lab, into the streets,” some raising American flags and signs supporting funding for scientific research.
“This administration is taking a hatchet to scientific study, inquiry and research,” said Anne Bridgeman of Eugene. Bridgeman’s daughter is an undergraduate studying biology who is applying for doctorate programs.
“People who have received acceptances at universities for their graduate school programs are being told that they will be rescinded” due to funding cuts, Bridgeman said.
“It’s great to see the numbers out here, it’s great to have representatives from our government speaking to this issue,” she said.
Taylor Krilanovich, a doctoral student at OHSU researching albinism and other pigment disorders, has her research largely funded by the NIH and federal grants.
“It’s completely devastating to us as scientists and people to attempt to censor our research and push people they think are undesirable out,” said Krilanovich.
Krilanovich values diversity in science as it “makes us ethical and effective as researchers” and the field cannot advance without including historically marginalized populations, she said.
- Alan Cohen is an intern at the Salem Reporter and undergraduate student at Willamette University.
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