Faculty, students, community members join Stand Up for Science movement in Science Quad protest.
Students and faculty at the College protested recent federal funding freezes and and executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the sciences at a rally last Friday. The rally, held on Science Quad, was an unofficial offshoot of nationwide protests planned by the organization Stand Up for Science, which held a flagship rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on the same day.
Between 70 and 100 people attended the rally, which started at noon and lasted approximately 40 minutes, according to Assistant Professor of Computer Science Shikha Singh. Singh organized the rally alongside Assistant Professors of Computer Science Katie Keith and Rohit Bhattacharya.
In addition to the organizers, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Samuel McCauley and Williamstown resident Mike Miller ’82, the author of Reversing Misinformation, a book on combating misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, spoke at the rally.
Bhattacharya said he brought up Stand Up for Science with his computer science colleagues after discovering the organization online. “It started with a Slack message,” he said. “I just pointed out that there was a rally happening across the country. It’s something that directly affects our work, something that directly affects our students, and we thought it was a good opportunity for us to show that we’re not quiet bystanders to what’s going on.”
Initially, Bhattacharya had planned to attend a protest in Albany, N.Y. “A lot of the [Stand Up for Science] rallies are happening in state capitals,” he said. “But the rally at Albany was moved to New York City … so we decided, ‘Why not do something local here, where we can get more people from our community to come out and hear the message and see various ways in which they can help?’”
Singh worked to publicize the event. “We advertised it among faculty, students, and [built] a little bit of publicity,” she said. Singh sent a poster to the computer science department’s listserv and student organizations, including student advisory committees from the chemistry and computer science departments. These committees are led by students. They offer peer support and function as a liaison between faculty and students.
Ella Sobhani ’25, a computer science major, was one of the students who attended the rally. “I was almost tearing up a little bit, just [about how] fortunate it is to continue to have spaces to protect diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sciences,” she said. “It made me feel pretty proud to be part of the CS community here and also made me kind of fearful to leave the CS community at Williams and enter the industry, where it probably won’t be as like-minded and supportive.”
Bhattacharya said that the movement to preserve federal funding for the sciences is universally important. “Science is a truth-seeking endeavor, where we’re looking to understand the world,” he said. “That also leads to amazing discoveries… Things that led to the creation of the internet and GPS were direct results of federal funding. A lot of us here do that sort of research, and we’d like to see that continue.”
“But we’re also educators,” Bhattacharya said. “We want our students to succeed. Our students’ success hinges on us having funds to give them the opportunities we’d like for them to have. Things like the Summer Science Program — some portion of funding from the grants [faculty] receive goes into helping support those programs.”
While many professors, including Bhattacharya, are still working under previously approved grants, worries about the status of already-submitted applications are widespread. Singh said she explicitly mentioned DEI efforts in a grant proposal from earlier this year, in order to fulfill the “broader impacts” criterion of the NSF merit review process. “Currently, in my grant under review, I talk about how I want [the computer science department] to participate in the Summer Science Program, which is aimed at underrepresented students and [making] sciences more accessible,” she said. But now, there are executive orders claiming that they are not going to allow federal grants to be used for anything of the sort. That is now all under question.”
Beyond the College, many research institutions and science internship programs have already been affected. “A lot of the REU [Research Experiences for Undergraduates] programs that exist around the country have been canceled,” Bhattacharya said. “There’s word of PhD admissions being frozen or [job] offers being rescinded — jobs at national parks and national laboratories — good jobs that our students … would be interested in taking. If these jobs are just not available to them, then we’re failing our students.”
Singh emphasized the long-term effects of these policies. “The workforce that goes into research for the next three to four years, it’s [going to be] drastically different,” Singh added. “If no one is doing a PhD in any of the sciences, then we’re not seeing scientists coming out of that. This is going to have a lot of effects that are going to be felt much later than now.”
“Contact your elected officials — whether it’s the Select Board, or your governor, or your congressman,” Miller said in an interview with the Record. “Tell them that you want [them to] support science.”
Miller argued that science-related advocacy should remain focused on its direct goals, instead of broadening their scope to policies regarding DEI in institutions of higher education. His position differed from those of other speakers who spoke on resisting attacks against DEI in addition to attacks on scientific research. “People should think strategically about their actions to try and make something constructive, make a difference, not just … protest for the sake of protesting,” he added.
“This is a call to scientists right now that our work is not apolitical,” Keith said. “I think there’s a huge anti-intellectual movement going on, and we’ve seen this throughout history, right when fascist and authoritarian regimes take over. So, this is the time to stand up against it.”
“I would love to see a broader coalition of faculty, scientists, staff, and community members pooling our expertise and pooling our action and stepping up,” Keith added. “I would also call on the broader Williams community, especially students … [to] make our voices heard and use all of this incredible training and knowledge that we have had the privilege to obtain, to actually make a difference in the world.”
