SUNY ESF protest condemns Trump’s scientific, environmental research cuts
Titled “In Defense of Science, In Defense of ESF,” over 150 students, faculty and staff gathered Tuesday afternoon on SUNY ESF’s Moon Patio Tuesday afternoon to condemn Trump’s funding cuts to federal scientific and environmental research. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
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Over 150 students, faculty and staff gathered on SUNY ESF’s Moon Patio Tuesday to protest President Donald Trump’s federal scientific and environmental research funding cuts.
Titled “In Defense of Science, In Defense of ESF,” and hosted by United University Professions, campus community members called on the SUNY system to protect and support university research. ESF is facing a $5 million budget deficit, Assistant Professor Jennifer Goff said, adding state policymakers, as well as federal agencies, are responsible for this financial strain.
“At a time when federal funding is being frozen or delayed, the greatest threat to this vital work isn’t the chaos ripping through Washington, D.C., it’s in Albany,” Goff, who teaches chemistry, said. “If the state of New York continues to pull back support, it’s not just SUNY ESF that loses, central New York loses, the next generation loses and this planet that we live on loses.”
Goff said most of ESF’s research funding comes from several federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture. The university also receives funding from New York’s annual budget.
On April 15, the EPA directed its staff to begin canceling grants previously awarded to higher education institutions, The New York Times reported. Since Trump’s inauguration, the EPA has canceled $1.5 billion in environmental justice grants and has frozen funding for clean energy and efficiency programs.
Rich Veenstra, president of UUP’s Upstate Medical University chapter, criticized the SUNY Board of Trustees, saying it prioritizes university centers, such as University at Buffalo and Binghamton University, while leaving ESF and other SUNY campuses underfunded.
In its previous two state budgets, state officials increased funding to SUNY campuses by $277 million. But Veenstra said the SUNY Board of Trustees decides how the money should be apportioned to SUNY campuses.
“What we need now more than ever is fair funding for our environmental sciences, not cuts,” Veenstra said. “ESF is the only SUNY campus dedicated solely to the environmental sciences. ESF is also the number one per capita in research expenditures within the SUNY system. Yet it remains chronically underfunded by a SUNY system that wants to build only a few flagship campuses.”
Statewide UUP President Frederick Kowal said Trump’s policies are causing lasting damage to the planet, contrasting the Trump administration’s environmental actions with the efforts of previous administrations.
He said the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA were compromises Democrats and Republicans led together. The Trump administration, he said, is putting its own agenda above the needs of the planet.
“Those were bipartisan efforts, both parties working together, and that’s where I get hope and it’s also because of the first three words of our Constitution: ‘We the people,’” Kowal said. “The power in this country does not flow from one or two or a handful of men in the White House. The power comes from we, the people, and that is the ultimate check on what’s coming out of Washington D.C.”
Goff said state and federal funding for ESF is critical, calling the school a “rare space” for faculty and students as the only SUNY campus focused solely on environmental studies. She said ESF’s community has been responsible for various groundbreaking environmental initiatives, recalling a hallway conversation with a fellow professor that turned into a federally funded research project.
Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Photo Editor
“If the state of New York continues to pull back support… this planet that we live on loses.” Students, faculty and staff protested at SUNY ESF Tuesday afternoon to condemn the federal cuts and call for SUNY system protections for research.
Eden Gardner, an ESF senior and president of its Mighty Oak Student Association, echoed Goff, and said he’s seen firsthand how the school fosters real-world applications of sustainability throughout his time on campus.
He said the Trump administration’s restrictions undermine the important work of ESF students and faculty.
“It goes without saying, but since the new administration took power earlier this year, the existential questions we face have grown ever more pressing,” Gardner said. “We as environmentalists must ask ourselves, who are we? How do we fit into this rapidly changing landscape?”
Since taking office, Trump canceled or froze billions of dollars of grants made through the National Institutes of Health, and attempted to fire hundreds of National Science Foundation employees, the Times reported.
Micah Fulmer, a freshman majoring in environmental studies, attended Tuesday’s rally after watching several friends lose internship opportunities as a result of Trump’s funding cuts. Fulmer emphasized the importance of students speaking out in the current political climate.
“People are losing opportunities, and it’s just not fair,” Fulmer said. “A lot of opportunities have been promised that were taken away, and research that was very viable is now not viable at all.”
Amid these unprecedented times, Kowal encouraged students to draw on traditional wisdom from Indigenous cultures. The Haudenosaunee people, he said, expect leaders to make decisions with consideration for their impact seven generations in the future.
Federal and state governments should be guided by similar principles, he said, making decisions that benefit the next generations instead of short-term, consequential actions. He said ESF has been “forgotten” by state’s leaders, even though the university focuses on the future and needs proper resources to continue its work.
“Earth Day should be a celebration of the environment, the steps we’ve taken to preserve it and the work we will do to sustain it,” Kowal said. “Instead, we find ourselves in a battle with the new administration, which has launched an assault on science that has included gutting federal funding for research.”
