Quick Take
Climate change, managing fisheries, cancer research and training young scientists were just some of the major issues Santa Cruz protestors raised in two of the more than 30 such science-focused gathering around the country on Friday. The rallies UCSC's main and coastal campuses focused on Trump/DOGE cuts to federal funding and workforces and drew public impact connections to Santa Cruz.
In two separate rallies in Santa Cruz on Friday afternoon, scientists rallied against President Donald Trump’s administration’s deep cuts to federal science agencies’ staff and funding.
More than 200 scientists and supporters gathered at the UC Santa Cruz main campus, and more than 150 rallied in front of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz’s Coastal Science Campus.
In late February, several hundred weather forecasters and other National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employees on probationary status were laid off nationally as part of the administration’s effort to slash federal spending, and local federal workers have not been spared, as six Monterey County staffers and one in Santa Cruz recently were terminated. The moves have largely been carried out by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and have been a defining feature of Trump’s return to office.
At the coastal campus, many protesters held up signs bashing the federal cuts, which read “defend science, defund Musk,” “scientists save lives,” and “stand up for science, our fate is not sealed” appropriately displayed against a statue of a seal.
Ingrid Parker, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, addressed the large crowd and said she was attending the rally as a “concerned citizen and member of the community as well as a scientist.” Saying that science is both an engine for innovation and protector of the environment and humans’ quality of life, she introduced Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz professor of marine ecology.
Carr pointed to the operations that rely on funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health (NIH), which are under “horrific assault right now,” saying that research both informs policy decisions and provides guidance and training to the next generation of scientists.
The Friday protest occurred in more than 30 cities across the country, including the two Santa Cruz events, as part of a nationwide action called Stand Up For Science. Organizers outlined three main goals: ending censorship and political interference in science, expanding scientific funding, and defending diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in science.
The day of protest responded to mounting administration actions. In the first two months of Trump’s second term, he has issued a range of orders and memos that threaten medical research funding to universities, halt many communications from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including its agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and told universities they could lose funding for programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. He also appointed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead HHS.
UCSC professor Karen Ottemann co-organized the rally on UCSC’s main campus. She told Lookout the cuts to federal research funding affect crucial current projects and also impact careers and training for up-and-coming scientists.
“I’m here today because I really believe in science as a way to improve people’s lives, society,” said Ottemann, who chairs the Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology department. “Also, I know that we need to continue to train new scientists because that’s how ideas come and there’s so many areas where science can make an improvement.”
She explained possible impacts on her own work, given that she receives two NIH grants for her ulcer-causing bacteria research. Six scientists and graduate students, and two undergraduates, are all supported with federal funds to do that work, aiming to understand how bacteria survive in the stomach. Ottemann said their work helps develop therapies to get rid of the bacteria – bacteria that causes ulcers and gastric cancer. She has one more year of funding and isn’t certain what will happen for future grants.
“I’m applying [to additional funding] in the summer, so I’ll find out,” she said. “Hopefully, maybe things will calm down.”
Carr, the marine ecology professor, told Lookout that he has done research projects with NOAA Fisheries and NOAA Sanctuary collaborators, both to advance the current understanding of marine science and to inform ongoing research. He added that many university researchers working with the UCSC Fisheries Collaborative Program are funded by the federal government, too.
“All of that stuff is in danger — serious danger — of being cut, and what that does is just destroys those research efforts,” he said.
Carr said he is deeply concerned with the effects further cuts could have on the researchers in these programs – the next generation of scientists.
“The young ones have the most up-to-date skill sets – whether they’re analytical skill sets or sampling technology, those are the ones that we need,” he said. “It makes no sense to take them out of the picture.”
Carr said it’s one thing to want to reduce the size of government, but it’s a whole different story to cut huge portions of the government with “no rhyme or reason.”
“It’s the same thing Musk did when he bought X [formerly Twitter], he just slaughtered it,” he said. “You can do that to your own damn company, but you’re talking about the federal government now.”
Anne Kapuscinski, director of the Coastal Science and Policy Program and chair of the board of directors for the Union of Concerned Scientists, donned a shirt that had the union’s name altered to read “Union of Pissed-off Scientists.” Noting UCSC’s coastal science campus as a nationally recognized hub for research and education, she said, “It’s a model of collaboration between academic and federal scientists to produce, share and apply science to meet public needs.”
“They want to raid the pockets of universities, labs, hospitals and agencies across the country,” she told the crowd. “These attempts are illegal, backwards and wrong, and if they are successful, people will suffer, and our economy, our health and our environment will also suffer.”
Kapuscinski reflected on her move to UC Santa Cruz from Dartmouth College seven years ago. When she visited, she realized how special of a place it is, she said.
“Some of the academic scientists here were instrumental in establishing the marine protected areas, which are renowned in the world, and are a model for how to both protect our biodiversity and have it recovered to the point that fishermen can actually catch things,” she said. “It’s like taking a treasure and purposely trying to destroy it.”
Kapuscinski said that the Union of Concerned Scientists announced Wednesday that it is suing Musk and DOGE with the Sierra Club, the Japanese American Citizens League and OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates to stop funding cuts, alleging that “seizing power over the large swaths of federal spending, decimating the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies is illegal and unconstitutional.”
Kapuscinski said the most concerning impacts include difficulty managing fisheries to keep them sustainable, tracking humpback whale populations and entanglements, and the ability to collect data from satellites to inform researchers about climate change.
“This is the very time when you really need the scientific workforce and funding to be as stable as possible,” she said, adding that scientific enterprise is a major reason why the United States is a world leader in innovation. “We’re a mecca for people wanting to come to learn about science here, because we’re so good at it. Why would they go out of their way to dismantle the scientific enterprise that helped make us a thriving, prosperous nation?”
Meredith McPherson was one person attending the rally who has been personally affected. Wearing a sign around her neck that read “I am a scientist fired by DOGE!”, she told Lookout that she was fired on Feb. 14 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). There, she worked on a coral reef project that aimed to understand how storms and flooding will change over time due to coral reef loss. She said agencies seeing cuts provide public benefit that often goes overlooked.
“It’s just a part of our daily lives, and when you dismantle those institutions whether it’s USGS, NOAA or NIH, people are going to realize very rapidly that you no longer have that network and foundation of science.”
Hillary Ojeda contributed to this report.
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