I’m a physics professor at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) but writing this letter as a private citizen, scientist and educator rather than on behalf of UNC. My colleagues and I prepare our students to join America’s scientific workforce and contribute to the American innovational engine that is the envy of the world and the driver of our economy. UNC’s leadership supports this mission and recognizes the positive impact our science graduates make. Not everyone does, however. I write this letter to highlight how President Trump’s recent attacks on higher education, and science in particular, are hurting students right here at UNC.
Last spring, UNC was designated a Hispanic Serving Institution, due to our 25% Hispanic student body that today even more closely resembles Weld County’s 31% Hispanic population. This opened the door to, and increased our competitiveness for, numerous opportunities benefitting our student body at large, for example, an internship program sponsored by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities — until Trump issued an executive order shutting down all manner of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. When you navigate to the website for that student internship program, along with many others, you now get, “Oops, Page Not Found!”
A critical part of the career readiness training of UNC science students happens outside of the classroom in the form of internships and research experiences. Both have been severely curtailed by the Trump administration. On the research side, millions of dollars of federal grants to UNC have been illegally canceled or threatened with cancellation. These are grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and other agencies that create paid positions for UNC students and otherwise support student training. They also increase the prestige of our students’ degrees via UNC’s recent achievement of Carnegie “R2” or “High Research Activity” status, which may now be in jeopardy.
UNC is part of an intricate ecosystem of higher education. Damage inflicted by Trump in one part of the ecosystem (such as East Coast Ivy institutions) propagates to other parts (such as UNC). For example, faculty at “R1” or “Very High Research Activity” universities organize conferences at which UNC students can present. They host summer research experiences in which UNC students can participate. They run graduate programs to which many UNC students go to receive advanced training. They collaborate with UNC faculty on grant applications that create paid jobs for UNC students. Simply put, their loss is UNC students’ loss.
Trump’s revocation of thousands of F-1 and J-1 student visas across the country has had a demoralizing effect on the UNC community. It’s not just the fear of wondering who will be targeted next, it’s the recognition that international students are enormously valuable to UNC. Last year, I recruited an Austrian student on a J-1 visa to join my physics research group. His prior training differed from that of my other students in an advantageous way that got us up and running on a new project. A few months later, another student of mine — a young woman from Colorado — presented this collaborative project at an international poster competition, and she won first place.
Many UNC science faculty are fighting for our students’ opportunities, but we need help from the Greeley and Weld County communities. Most urgently, we need you to tell our representatives in the U.S. Congress that they must reject Trump’s proposed budget cuts for fiscal year 2026, which would expand and entrench the attacks described above. According to the American Physical Society, a venerable organization dedicated to the advancement of physics, “these cuts would eliminate opportunities for students, set U.S. research and innovation on a path of decline, and diminish the scientific workforce, making it ill-equipped to meet the needs of industry and society. Long-term, these cuts would devastate the U.S. technological enterprise.”
Regardless of our political affiliation, that is a bleak future, one that we cannot accept. So let’s not. It’s that simple. Call your representatives today and tell them it is imperative that they defend science and higher education and stand up for the students of UNC. Here are their numbers: Sen. Michael Bennet 303-455-7600; Sen. John Hickenlooper 303-244-1628; Rep. Gabe Evans 970-324-2567.
Dr. Tyler Engstrom is assistant professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado.
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