Over one hundred demonstrators gathered on the Pentacrest in Iowa City early morning on Friday to participate in the Stand Up For Science rally happening nationally.
The rally responded to the Trump Administration rolling back funding for the National Institutes of Health and other science research funding for many universities. The rally’s central website describes the demonstrations as having three main goals: to end censorship and political interference in science, secure and expand scientific funding, and defend diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science.
Organizers, who included workers at the University of Iowa Health Care and members of the COGS Graduate Student Union, encouraged attendees to call representatives Charles Grassley, Joni Ernst, and Marianette Miller-Meeks. Also at the rally was the band Second Half, which performed cover songs before and after the speakers and the Rank and File Union. Attendees held up signs and chanted about the importance of science.
