Holding signs with messages such as “Cap Elon, not the NIH” and “Iowa is Raising Pigs Smarter than the Ones in Office,” hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the University of Iowa Pentacrest Friday for a “Stand up for Science” protest.
Alex Petrucci, one of the organizers, said she has never seen so many people on the Pentacrest in her eight years at the UI.
“I’m so proud of the community. This was all grassroots, just word of mouth,” Petrucci said. “It’s fantastic. And everyone has really gathered around the same message for different reasons — just how science is important to them.”
As the crowd grew, spreading from the center of the Pentacrest to Clinton Street, several speakers took the mic. The hum of the spirited crowd came to near silence as researcher and community member Maurine Neiman tearfully shared a personal story.
“My son, JJ, died in 2020 from a vaccine-preventable disease: influenza,” Neiman said. “JJ had been vaccinated. We did everything we could as parents to keep him safe. But I think we all know that vaccines aren’t perfect.”
Neiman said she chose to share the heartbreaking loss of her 2-year-old son to emphasize the real-world impact of science and the conversations surrounding it. She pointed to the Texas child who died of measles on Feb. 25 — the first U.S. measles death since 2015 — as another example.
“We need to communicate to people that children die of infectious diseases,” Neiman said. “They don’t have to, but they will continue to die of infectious diseases because we either don’t have a good enough vaccine yet, and we need scientists to work on it, or because there is a wholesale assault on science and public health in this country.”
After a moment of silence for Neiman’s son, the next speaker read aloud the phone numbers of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, prompting everyone in the crowd to call and voice their concerns about recent executive orders cutting National Institutes of Health, or NIH, funding.
Reminding the crowd Miller-Meeks won by only six votes in 2020, speaker Ben Kelvington encouraged community members to feel empowered as voters.
“[Miller-Meeks] has to be responsive to us,” Kelvington said. “We here today are much more than six people. We can make a difference.”
Seth Tomchik, a neuroscience researcher and protest organizer, said he has firsthand experience with the critical role NIH-funded research plays in advancing disease treatment and prevention.
“If [NIH funding] goes away, then almost all of the basic research that develops new drugs to treat chronic and acute diseases, that we all are going to suffer from at some point in our lives, will go away,” Tomchik said. “So, the damage will accumulate over time.”
Addressing the crowd, Tomchik compared the resistance to President Donald Trump’s orders cutting NIH funding to the intricate systems studied by scientists, emphasizing the power of collective action. Much like an isolated protein cannot function on its own, Tomchik said, meaningful change requires individuals to come together within a larger network.
“We need to be persistent. We need to be a protein, go out into the world, plug into a network, do one thing, and do it every day, and we will make the difference,” Tomchik said. “There’s going to be a breakthrough. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, but if we put the energy in to make this difference, it will happen.”
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Attendee Aislinn Williams said federal funding cuts threaten not only scientific research but also upward mobility for those born into poverty. As a first-generation college graduate, Williams spoke from personal experience, having come from a poor family and gone on to earn her undergraduate degree, M.D., and Ph.D.
“NIH funding was essential for me getting my training so that I could afford to go to medical school and for me to be able to be a physician now,” Williams said.
Karley Monaghan, a graduate student studying pharmacology, said she and her colleagues chose to pursue a career in science because of their drives to change the world for the better.
“The main reason that I’m out here today is to make sure that we can continue to be able to do good research and help people,” Monaghan said.
Speaker Jane Miller, who entered the field of science and medicine during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, shared that this is not the first time presidential orders have threatened her work.
“I remember when the Reagan administration tried to pretend that AIDS didn’t exist and that the people who were dying weren’t important,” Miller said. “But it was patients, families, friends, advocates, doctors, and scientists who stood together. And we learned that when we stand together, science wins.”
Johnson County Supervisor Mandi Remington said since the county lacks the funds to offset looming NIH cuts, she regularly calls Miller-Meeks and Grassley to advocate for science funding on behalf of her constituents.
“I may not immediately know what I can do as a county supervisor to mitigate the harm caused by state and federal legislation, funding cuts, and attacks on marginalized residents, but I’m definitely not going to figure it out without engaging with the communities that are directly affected,” Remington said.
After hearing from the speakers, the crowd remained on the Pentacrest with music from local band Second Half — featuring researchers and musicians Chris Hunter and Israel Wipf — filling the air.
With the exception of a passerby who interrupted a speech to shout “Trump is your president,” there were no counter-protesters.