{"id":795,"date":"2025-03-10T11:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=795"},"modified":"2025-03-10T14:38:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T14:38:57","slug":"researchers-protest-trump-cuts-to-funding-in-washington-square-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/10\/researchers-protest-trump-cuts-to-funding-in-washington-square-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers protest Trump cuts to funding in Washington Square Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hundreds joined researchers, professors and other community members in Washington Square Park to protest President Donald Trump\u2019s recent cuts to scientific research funding on Friday afternoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NYU professors, students and researchers\u00a0rallied in support as medical professionals spoke about the need for community advocacy amid Trump\u2019s slash to billions of dollars in medical research and <\/span>mass federal worker layoffs<\/span><\/a>. Protesters held signs reading \u201cTRUST YOUR NERDS,\u201d \u201cSCIENCE SAVES LIVES\u201d and \u201cAMERICA: BUILT ON SCIENCE\u201d at the demonstration, which was one of over 30 Stand Up for Science rallies organized across the United States and Europe on Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a speech, Tandon professor Yann LeCun, who serves as Meta\u2019s chief artificial intelligence scientist, said that federal funding is vital to long-term scientific and technological discoveries at universities. Other speakers included researchers from Columbia University \u2014 which lost <\/span>$400 million<\/span><\/a> in grants on Friday \u2014 and New York state Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaker Claire Pomeroy, CEO of the Lasker Foundation for medical research, told the crowd that federal cuts to research funding can minimize the value of scientists to the public eye, which could further increase research job losses and create uncertainty at universities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that NIH funding continues \u2014 we need to make sure that everybody who wants to be a scientist has the opportunity to be one,\u201d Pomeroy said in an interview with WSN. \u201cWe need the public to trust science and all the wonders that it can create.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The demonstration came in response to Trump\u2019s crackdown on research since taking office in an effort to reduce government spending, including a <\/span>pause to all federal aid<\/span><\/a> \u2014 which cost NYU at least two grants \u2014 and an attack on thousands of research grants covering race, gender and other \u201c<\/span>woke<\/span><\/a>\u201d subject matters. On the day of the rally, Trump cut millions from Columbia\u2019s research funding after his task force determined that Columbia failed to combat antisemitism on campus. The <\/span>task force will also visit NYU<\/span><\/a> as part of an investigation into 10 U.S. universities with reportedly antisemitic incidents on campus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe ideas that will make a difference in five years from now are being hatched right now \u2014 here at NYU, at Cornell, at Stony Brook \u2014 so defunding these academic research institutions is a dumb and short sighted idea,\u201d Lucas Parra, a biomedical engineering professor at the City University of New York, said in a speech. \u201cAcademic institutions and their students are the engine of prosperity, so let\u2019s stand up for science. Let’s stand up for knowledge. Don’t let ignorance win.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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