Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

Around 200 scientists, students and labor organizers rallied on the New Haven Green on Wednesday evening to call on the federal government to take its “hands off” their research, protesting funding cuts that they believe threaten the future of science and education.

Organized by Valerie Horsley and Megan King, both professors in Yale’s molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, the protest was part of a national “Labor for Higher Education” day of action, which took place in over 15 cities nationwide. Protestors gathered at Bennett Fountain just before sundown to decry the Trump administration’s recent proposed freezes and cuts in funding from the National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control and the National Science Foundation, which have left many research grants in limbo.

Monique Hinchcliff, a doctor and researcher in the School of Medicine’s scleroderma program, spoke about how federal dollars have funded her education and career. She has benefitted from the NIH Loan Repayment Program and several awards and grants, which she claimed add up to over a million dollars since her residency.

“One message we can send to Washington, DC is that it’s not cost-effective to cancel NIH grants at this juncture, because there are many, many people like me that you all have paid to train,” Hinchcliff said, addressing the gathered crowd. “I’ll be fine, I’ll go see patients, but the research will come to a screeching halt, and there will be no new treatments to help patients with scleroderma or many, many other rare diseases.”

Wednesday’s protest was sparked by executive orders and policy changes that have disrupted federal science funding in recent weeks. The NSF froze funds for existing research grants, while the NIH implemented indirect cost cuts of up to 15 percent. Both changes were temporarily blocked by federal courts. Scientists at Yale have reported delays in grant approvals. Other institutions across the country have faced hiring freezes and canceled Ph.D. recruitment. 

Horsley told the News that she and King had been working to organize opposition to diversity program-specific NSF cuts when she got the idea to organize the rally from attending a national call with the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP. Yale’s AAUP chapter was revived in November.

At the rally, attendees bundled in layers of winter clothes held signs reading “Make America Smart Again” and “Fund Science, not Silence.” 

“Federal funding has been slashed,” Jordan Galbraith MED ’30, a third-year student in Yale’s MD-PhD program, said. “My own lab, who scored really well on a grant recently, has not been awarded that funding. We don’t know where we’re going to get our funding.”

Speakers at the protest also voiced concern about the targeting of diversity programs in research. 

NIH-funded programs supporting underrepresented groups in STEM have faced scrutiny, with some awards flagged for key terms like “underrepresented” and “diversity” — a move that many scientists say threatens equity in research. On Friday, the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to universities, advising them to halt all diversity-related programs.

King told the News that she was pleased that Yale did not ask researchers to stop or change their work related to such diversity initiatives after Friday’s Dear Colleague letter. 

“They have actually specifically said not to change content that’s outward facing, like a website,” King said. “That’s been an actual specific directive, not to capitulate in advance, which has happened elsewhere.”

Michael McGovern, a postdoctoral researcher at the Law School who sits on the Executive Committee of Yale’s new AAUP advocacy chapter, participated in Wednesday’s rally.

“I attended the rally because it’s exactly the kind of action our chapter wants to support and see more of,” McGovern wrote in an email to the News. “We need to build solidarity across campus, across disciplines, across job classifications, because these cuts and policies affect all academic workers, not to mention our communities.” 

Protest organizers urged attendees to call their elected representatives and voice concerns over the slashed federal funding. Horsley told the News that she and other professors are also leveraging their national networks to encourage friends and colleagues in Republican districts to pressure their federal representatives.

Sarah Lawson, a biology researcher at Quinnipiac University, ended her remarks at the rally with a call and response chant, which the crowd followed enthusiastically: “What do we want? Evidence-based science. When do we want it? Now!”

“Or, after peer review,” Lawson amended.

A “Stand up for science” demonstration is planned for March 7 in Hartford.