Nearly 1,000 Colorado State University students and Fort Collins community members gathered at the Lory Student Center Plaza Friday, March 7, to march in the national Stand Up for Science 2025 movement. For three hours, participants marched from the LSC to Old Town and back, giving speeches and reciting chants.
The march, which was organized by the local STEM Interdisciplinary Ram Alliance at CSU, advocated for bipartisan support for the continuation of scientific research. Fort Collins Police Services stopped traffic along College Avenue to allow protesters to safely march along the route.
“It was the desperate plea for people to understand that science is unbiased and that it benefits everyone,” said Victoria Silva, SIRA co-president.
Participants held signs with slogans reading, “Defend not defund,” “Science saves lives” and “Vaccines cause adults” while chanting, “Fight for science, fight for the future” and “Research makes our country grow.”
“In an honest world, truth would be enough and science would be apolitical. Dishonest politics promote lies, hate and fear in efforts to intimidate us into ignoring the data and accepting their biases, even in the face of overwhelming, contradictory evidence. When confronting movements of lies and prejudice, scientists no longer have the luxury to be apolitical.” -Brian Munsky, march organizer
The crowd of demonstrators steadily grew as community members joined in support, with no significant counterprotests emerging.
“We just wanted to support students who are concerned about their rights and future,” Silva said. “We wanted to be able to name and put a face to the repercussions of what’s going on.”
The march followed a series of actions by President Donald Trump, who stated his intent to block federal funding for higher education, potentially impacting scientific research programs at CSU and nationwide.
“In an honest world, truth would be enough and science would be apolitical,” said Brian Munsky, CSU associate professor and march organizer. “Dishonest politics promote lies, hate and fear in efforts to intimidate us into ignoring the data and accepting their biases, even in the face of overwhelming, contradictory evidence. When confronting movements of lies and prejudice, scientists no longer have the luxury to be apolitical.”
According to CSU’s federal updates website, “The White House has issued multiple executive orders and taken federal actions that have implications for federally funded grants, agreements and contracts.”
The website warns that some federal research grants could be halted on March 14, 2025, when Congress determines whether to continue a financial resolution. Already, some research grants have been put under stop-work orders, though the orders have been temporarily blocked by the federal judiciary.
“People are being told that they can’t get grants with ‘climate change’ in it; they have to change it to ‘an unusually hot summer,’” said Giovanna Paterno, protest marshal and CSU student. “The blatant, unlawful censorship is concerning because if they can censor climate change, what else will they decide that doesn’t meet their agenda?”
Many protesters expressed their concern that the Trump administration’s actions against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could impact the future of science. A list of federally restricted words and phrases was released on Friday, March 7, which could censor past and future research efforts.
“People who are not qualified to be making decisions about science are making decisions, and that has great impacts,” Silva said. “It’s a detriment to the pursuit of knowledge.”
Silva said SIRA plans to collaborate with community members and students to construct a list of concerns that will be presented to college deans and state representatives.
“Our research is done by all kinds of people, and this research benefits all of us,” Ph.D. candidate Gabrielle Leung said in a speech. “We are calling on our state officials and CSU leadership to do better.”
Infectious disease doctor Akash Gupta said science-adverse public policy could lead to detrimental outcomes.
“In the last month, I have seen the policy be so terrible and so awful that people are already dying,” Gupta said. “The future is incredibly scary if that continues.”
Echoing these concerns, Silva highlighted the responsibility of scientists to garner awareness for the importance of their work.
“Our academic freedom was and is being threatened, and it has been already impacted,” Silva said. “As scientists who understand the ramifications and potential ripple effects of what’s being done now that could impact the world literally forever, we cannot stay silent as the people who understand those ramifications literally better than anyone.”
Reach Chloe Waskey at science@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.
