Stanford AAUP

These illegal grant terminations have had widespread negative impacts, even on those whose grants have not (yet) been terminated. Along with the devastating financial impact, they’ve caused instability, fear, and anxiety among the people trying to advance medicine and science.

Opinion | Trump Wants You to Believe Climate Change Isn’t Dangerous

Climate change is real and it endangers you and your children.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...

Trump Orders Firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief The president’s move throws the quality of America’s statistical apparatus into question.

Another victim from the reality-based community of Trump's disdain for data, expertise, and science.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker

With boost to NIH budget, Senate panel rejects Trump’s plan to slash agency Republicans on spending committee push back against proposed reorganization and overhead cuts

This is good news.

However: "many political onlookers think the 2026 fiscal year budget will become stalled and result in a continuing resolution that keeps agency budgets at their 2025 levels."

Better than cuts, at least.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Health and Rural Energy Decisions: Lessons From Missouri and Wisconsin - The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (MSCCH) This webinar will present findings from a new report by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and Stanford University, Renewable Energy Transitions and Health in Rural America.

🌿💡 Join Stanford Law Prof. Deborah Sivas on Aug 6 for a webinar on health and energy in rural communities! Discover insights from a new report on making energy choices that prioritize local health.

🔗 Learn more and register here: medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/event/health...

We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.

NEW

The Trump administration has put a halt on ALL new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health (Billions of $$), setting up a battle with lawmakers

t.co/GEM6JmLCcG

via me @nidhisubs.bsky.social and Ken Thomas

This administration’s attacks on science will cause generations of harm. The UN just last week said countries are legally obligated to curb emissions, yet this is what we’re doing here in the US.

antarctica is famously woke so i get it

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

Insane.

The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

www.science.org/content/arti...

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

Insane.

The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

www.science.org/content/arti...

I cannot stress this enough: pairing a 4% funding line with the largest cut in NCI history will devastate the future of cancer research.

@catgyoung.bsky.social
#medsky

Columbia’s $200M deal with Trump administration sets a precedent for other universities to bend to the government’s will While Columbia University can afford to pay the government $200 million in order to unfreeze federal grants and contracts it was awarded, many other universities and colleges could not.

"This agreement is very broad and gives the federal government oversight of things that have long been under universities’ control, such as whom they hire to teach and which students they admit."

theconversation.com/columbias-20...

Rallying for Science: NIH Staff and Alumni Unite Behind Bethesda Declaration - Baltimore Post-Examiner Researchers and staff at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — as well as former employees fired as part of the mass layoffs — rallied on July 21 to support those who signed the Bethesda Declarati...

It’s time to come together to hold Jay Bhattacharya accountable for his management of #NIH because we are #StrongerTogether.

No more devaluing scientific expertise

No more discriminating against racial, ethnic and gender minority populations

baltimorepostexaminer.com/rallying-for...

Researchers in dismay as US exits world science body UNESCO . . . again The Trump administration plans the departure for the end of 2026 and criticizes the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In a move that is described as a setback for global cooperation in science and education, the US (once again) removes itself from UNESCO. Apparently, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are just too much for the Trump administration to handle.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump’s plan to slash global health spending rejected by key spending panel House of Representatives committee signals support for HIV/AIDS and other funding

A little good news from the US Congress, of all places.

www.science.org/content/arti...

In Extraordinary Deal With Trump, Columbia U. Agrees to Pay $200 Million to Restore Funds The university said the government would resolve its investigations and restore most of the $400 million in research funding it had stripped from the institution.

Columbia agrees to pay $200M to have its $400M of canceled research funding reinstated.

www.chronicle.com/article/in-e...

“With these considerations, we expect to fund through the 4th percentile.”

There it is, in black and white, the destruction of cancer research in the US.

As Jay said, many of the #BethesdaDeclaration signers will meet with him on Monday. And oh boy are we prepared!

While not every signer was invited, we worked together and with our colleagues across #NIH to bring our concerns—and evidence to back them up.

Buckle up, this will be a long thread. 🧵

Trump’s EPA eliminates research and development office and begins layoffs Administration’s move to cut thousands of agency jobs will be devastating for US public health, union warns

Trump administration eliminates the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the EPA. This is the division that has provided the science behind regulation since its founding in 1970.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

How Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Will Raise Energy Costs, Carbon Emissions Household energy expenses will rise, as will greenhouse gas emissions, as a result of the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act

American families already struggle to make ends meet, & now they’ll pay more for energy, b/c Trump gutted clean-energy support. This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a betrayal of our future, our air, our kids.

Fossil fuel billionaires win. The planet loses. The American People suffer.

zurl.co/Z3g3N

Duke School of Medicine plans salary cuts for tenured faculty who do not meet grant expectations Set to go in effect in 2026, the proposed policy would apply to the School’s basic sciences units. These units rely heavily on grants from the National Institutes of Health, which have been increasing...

👀

What a time to propose this policy:

"Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) plans to implement new faculty productivity guidelines that would tie tenured professors’ salaries to external research funding, according to documents reviewed by The Chronicle"
www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...

Opinion | Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators, Not So Much.

University boards of trustees, and by extension, administrators want vocational schools.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...

Trump’s $1tn for Pentagon to add huge planet-heating emissions, study shows Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries

⚠️⚠️⚠️"The US is already spending nearly $1tn a year on disaster recovery...Next year’s Pentagon emissions will cause $47bn in economic damages including impacts on agriculture, human health and property from extreme weather..."

Fentanyl is being used to justify a huge budget to enforce harsh immigration and border policies, tariff wars, and blur the definition of wartime "invasion." Yet US fentanyl overdose healthcare programs face uncertain funding. Is this admin genuinely concerned for fentanyl overdoses?

Immigration Officials Used Shadowy Pro-Israel Group to Target Student Activists

It’s long been suspected that Rubio and Noem were targeting foreign students based on info supplied by these fanatical, sinister groups. This is the first time the government has acknowledged it in open court. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/u...

Are Noncitizens’ Speech Rights Protected? | Harvard Magazine Harvard faculty testify in a federal lawsuit over free speech and deportations.

Yes, the First Amendment protects noncitizens, too—and this has been the law for eighty years, even if many people are suddenly pretending it’s an open question. www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/07/aaup...

A statement by 40 Jewish faculty and staff on antisemitism and DEI at U.Va. As scholars and teachers, we know that dissent and debate strengthen our intellectual commitments and moral judgments rather than threaten them. We reject any attempt to deny these basic truths. 

“A statement by 40 Jewish faculty and staff on antisemitism and DEI at U.Va.: The current political campaign against antisemitism in higher education does not protect Jews — it harms us, our communities and our institutions”
www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

I'd just like to point out how weird it is that places with hundreds or even thousands of reporters — the NYT, WaPo, CBS, NBC, AP, etc. — are all getting pummeled on every major story by the dozen computerboys at Wired. To fumble the bag this consistently is, at some point, cowardice and a choice.