On Tuesday, April 22, roughly 40 students assembled in front of Geisel Library in support of People’s Earth Day, a rally and march hosted by the Green New Deal at UC San Diego. People’s Earth Day advocates for free speech, equity, and improved sustainability on campus and ran from 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Green New Deal at UCSD promoted a petition in tandem with the event, listing three demands for Chancellor Pradeep Khosla and UCSD administrators: restore free speech and safeguard students; defend environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion focused programs and education; and maximize on-campus solar development by 2030.
The event began with a rally in front of Geisel, where protestors held up signs that displayed QR codes directing people to the petition. Representatives from a variety of organizations, including Green New Deal at UCSD, United Auto Workers Local 4811, and the Students’ Civil Liberties Union, gave speeches to the crowd.
Multiple speakers spoke about recent federal cuts to research funding, which have created uncertainty surrounding the future of research at UCSD. A statement from Khosla on April 2 estimated budget reductions to range anywhere from $75 million to $500 million annually.
Monica Nelson, a Ph.D. student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and member of Green New Deal at UCSD, described the impact of the federal cuts in her speech.
“Climate scientists are being outright silenced by the Trump administration every day around the country,” Nelson said. “We climate scientists are living in fear that we will lose our funding or our jobs.”
During her speech, Nelson also cited the Department of Commerce’s announcement to end $4 million in funding for research about climate change at Princeton University. In this announcement, the department stated it would end this funding because the awards to Princeton no longer align with the priorities of the Trump administration.
“We are having our funding revoked and our work canceled simply for speaking the truth about the climate crisis,” Nelson said.
Francisco Mendez Diaz, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of cellular and molecular medicine at UCSD and member of UAW 4811, also shared his perspective.
“We are highly-trained professionals doing essential work, and if we lose these jobs, the ripple effects will be felt in the form of reduced scientific productivity, slower medical advances, and reduced economic activity,” he said. “Supporting science is not just a matter of public health; it’s also about making our economy stronger and ensuring a livable planet for future generations to come.”
Natalia Gonzalez, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at UCSD and member of Green New Deal at UCSD, spoke during the rally about the Trump administration’s restrictions on freedom of speech by banning certain words from federally funded research.
“The [Trump] administration is now deciding what words we can and can’t say in federally funded research,” Gonzalez said. “National labs were barred from submitting peer-reviewed journal papers for months, and when the ban was lifted, they were told that all of their submissions would need to be screened by government officials to ensure that the discussion aligns with Trump’s agenda. My own research was instructed by these restrictions. This is a direct violation of my First Amendment right to free speech.”
This list of banned words is the result of Trump’s executive order terminating all federal DEI programs. The list may jeopardize research at UCSD, according to KPBS.
President of the SCLU and second-year Aryan Dixit spoke about the importance of actions like the People’s Earth Day.
“What I’m seeing here is that these protests make a difference,” he said. “Stay showing up, standing up for what is right changes things on this campus, even if you think you can’t see it, because it makes a difference when we use our right to free speech to discuss these things that are really important to us.”
After the speeches concluded, participants marched from Warren Mall to the Triton statue in front of Price Center. Those marching chanted a variety of phrases, including “Our planet, our future,” “Climate justice is what we need, so we say no to corporate greed,” and “No more coal, no more oil, keep the carbon in the soil.”
