Gianna Hayes
News Editor
On Friday, March 7, a crowd formed at the corner of Market Street and Liberty Street in downtown Wooster. Around 30 people, including several College of Wooster students and faculty members, alongside city of Wooster community members, held signs up to cars passing by between 12 and 1 p.m.
Some signs read “SCIENCE SAVES LIVES,” “You didn’t vote for Elon” and “SCIENCE RULZ, TRUMP DROOLS.” Other signs were commenting on the necessity of federally funded research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or were decorated with logos for such institutions.
Annastassia Gallo, assistant professor of chemistry, shared information about the rally with the campus community Wednesday, March 5. Due to the faculty restrictions on the ZWD listserv, communication about the event was spread via the chemistry departmental email list, as well as “word of mouth to get people involved,” per Gallo. They mentioned reasons for the event as “fair policy making,” “support[ing] scientists and the work they do,” “issues with science funding” and organizations such as the NIH and NSF being “under attack right now.”
“We need to focus in on some of the issues with science and science funding, and making sure that people are believing scientists and trusting science in terms of vaccines, in the terms of climate change — in all the aspects,” Gallo said.
Gallo heard about the initiative from a student who shared the nationwide Stand Up for Science 2025 initiative with them. That student, Rory Paradowski ’26, first heard about the initiative through a video by Hank Green. Green is an internet celebrity with origins on YouTube, and creates popular science communication videos. His video, posted to Instagram and TikTok March 3, references recent cutbacks to federally funded research institutions.
“Right now, the most powerful people in America aren’t coming after science because it threatens some people’s ideologies or their world view or their livelihoods — they’re coming after science because it threatens their power,” Green said.
Paradowski added her stance as a chemistry major, saying “I’m out here to support because this is all of our livelihoods. For the professors, this is where their grant money comes from, and for us, this is our future career. And all of those people who do a lot of hard work to keep us safe deserve to have their jobs back.”
STEM students and faculty alike gathered, but nonmajors and faculty from other departments also showed their support. Désirée Weber, associate professor and department chair of political science, attended the rally “because … the attacks on science and science research hurt all of us. Science is important for so many different things in our society that it should be a value and a set of research goals that we all support — we’re not seeing that from the current administration.”
Elizabeth Heatwole ’26 shared a similar sentiment. “I’m particularly concerned about the influence of non-elected parties who are influencing our country, such as Elon Musk,” she shared.
Some community members were also a part of the scientific community, like Jay Reeder, who worked in medical research for 50 years. “He’s going to kill science,” said Reeder, in reference to President Donald Trump. “It’s going to kill people.”
Still other community members were not self-proclaimed scientists, and instead were involved through Wooster Defends Democracy, like Debbie Keen. Wooster Defends Democracy has meetings bimonthly at First Presbyterian Church of Wooster, and regularly organizes rallies and protests in downtown Wooster. A former dental hygienist, Keen emphasized that “it’s very important … that we’re not losing our medical [funding].”
Gatherers received honks of support and thumbs up from various cars passing by, though there was some criticism hurled at them. A pedestrian walking by commented that “the vaccines are getting to your guys’ heads,” potentially in response to a sign reading “OUR TOP 10? VACCINES!” Another driver shook his fist out the window while shouting “Go Trump, go Trump.”
