(SYRACUSE, NEW YORK) - United University Professions (UUP), the Nation’s largest Higher Education Union, held an Earth Day celebration in Syracuse to defend the ground-breaking scientific and environmental research taking place at State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry - and reject the new administration’s freeze on billions in Federal Scientific and Environmental Research Grants.

SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry (ESF) Faculty, students, local Union Members and Environmental Activists and supporters came to the small campus sandwiched between Syracuse University and the JMA Wireless Dome and rallied on the Moon Patio near the F. Franklin Moon Library.

The event, titled In Defense of Science, In Defense of ESF, spotlighted SUNY ESF’s leadership in sustainability and ecological innovation and focused on the crucial importance of public investment in advancing research that benefits communities and ecosystems across New York - and beyond.

UUP President Fred Kowal said: “Earth Day should be a celebration of the environment, the steps we’ve taken to preserve it and the work we will do to sustain it. Instead, we find ourselves in a battle with the new administration, which has launched an assault on science that has included gutting Federal funding for research that could lead to life-changing and life-saving break-throughs in health care, energy, technology and the climate. We are compelled to fight, for necessary Federal research funding and for the academic freedom to teach about climate change, climate justice and climate science.”

Most of SUNY ESF’s research funding is derived from Federal and State Agencies and Programs, which include the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

ESF Researchers are at the forefront of combating climate change by developing high-yield, fast-growing willow biomass crops as a renewable energy source.

Other projects include studying the impacts of urban heat islands on disadvantaged communities, the revival of the American Chestnut tree, on-site detection of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and the invention of a system that removes ammonia from wastewater for use as fertilizer.

Pivotal ESF research into acid rain in the 1970s and 1980s has influenced national environmental policy and positioned the small college as a leader in ecosystem science and atmospheric pollution.

Speakers at the event also spoke out against the new administration’s attacks on Higher Education and academic freedom - including the freedom to teach about climate change and attacks on funding for climate science.

They addressed the need for more direct State aid to ESF, which is facing a $6.6 million budget deficit.

A total of $277 million in direct funding for campuses was included in the last two State budgets, but the SUNY Board of Trustees - which decides how the money is apportioned to campuses - has favored SUNY’s University Centers, leaving ESF and 16 other campuses with multi-million-dollar shortfalls.

UUP represents more than 42,000 Academic And Professional Faculty and Retirees. Who work at 29 New York State-operated campuses, including SUNY's Public Teaching Hospitals and Health Science Centers in Brooklyn, Long Island and Syracuse.