Students gathered before the Academic Building Friday afternoon to protest recent NIH funding cuts and what they said was growing disillusionment towards scientific research.

The protest is part of the nationwide organization Stand Up for Science, or SUFS, which orchestrated an assembly in Washington D.C. earlier today that drew thousands of attendees. SUFS is a grassroots movement with hundreds of locally organized protests, mainly at universities and institutions of higher education. 

The group is rooted in an agenda with three major policy goals: end censorship and political interference in science, secure and expand scientific funding and defend DEI initiatives and accessibility in science. The movement is a product of the stance President Donald Trump’s administration took on climate change and other scientific research in 2017 and has been reignited by his return to office earlier this year.

Led by the Psychology Department Organization of Graduate Students, or PDOGS, students from multiple majors and colleges participated, including chemists, engineers and atmospheric scientists. President of PDOGS and industrial and organizational psychology graduate student Benjamin Schulte, who co-organized the rally, said he attended to support his colleagues and classmates.

“One of the big pieces was the cap on NIH funding,” Schulte said. “There have been some federally funded projects here at Texas A&M, such as cancer research, that have been cancelled or put on pause.”

Schulte noted the protest came partly from the Trump administration’s rhetoric on scientific research it claims is wasteful and growing scientific skepticism in America. Other protestors who declined to provide their names due to fear of retaliation shared the same views. 

“There’s a long-running anti-intellectualism that has been going on in some of politics for a decade and a half,” one protestor said. “It started with global warming and kind of expanded from there. And now anti-vaccine content and those ideas are becoming much more prevalent; it’s scary and it’s frustrating.”

Protestors claimed that pulling NIH funding is not only an attempt to reduce government waste but also an endeavor to consolidate governmental power and oversight, particularly within the executive branch.

The rally began with a speech from associate professor of psychological and brain sciences Annmarie MacNamara. Students, protestors and bystanders gathered around the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue to listen at noon.

“Science, truth and knowledge are under threat,” MacNamara said. “I know that I am here because I am deeply concerned, not just for the state and funding and resources, but the very idea that fact is fact and evidence and resources matter.” 

Shortly after, the protestors began marching around the Academic Plaza, chanting together and handing out flyers that listed the slogans to passersby. Two chants were “Stand up, fight back — science is under attack” and “Research, progress, innovation — science builds a stronger nation”. 

Some students also held signs and posters, some of which read “I can’t believe we have to march for science” and “Texas A&M stands up for science”. 

The protest gathered the attention of several bystanders, and some ignored the gathering and scoffed at the group while others stayed to observe.

“Science does save lives,” a bystander who wished to remain anonymous said. “Right now especially, it makes sense that people are really fighting for their beliefs.”

During his first months in office, Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding to universities that allow illegal protests to take place on campus. Friday afternoon, he pulled over $400 million from Columbia University and claimed the school’s administration failed to protect Jewish students from growing anti-semitism and harassment from pro-Palestinian protestors. 

“I believe there should be pushback against anything that ever happens,” the bystander said. “Any signs of any type of resistance signifies a healthy country, at least to a degree …. As Voltaire once said, ‘Even if I don’t agree, I will fight to the death, I will give my life, to protect their freedom of speech.’”

The protestors ended their march at 12:30 p.m. and remained at the Academic Plaza until 1 p.m., at which time they dispersed.