Eight USC professors and professors emeritus — including the namesake of the Viterbi School of Engineering, Presidential Professor Andrew Viterbi, as well as professors from the Davis School of Gerontology, Keck School of Medicine and Price School of Public Policy — signed a public statement Monday, calling on the Trump administration to “cease its wholesale assault” on United States science. 

The letter — written by elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — specified that the signers were expressing their personal views, not representing their institutions.

The signees wrote that there was a “climate of fear” in the research community due to policies targeting research on topics the Trump administration considers “objectionable” and results it does not like, leading to researchers abandoning projects and re-writing grants. 

The Trump administration’s investigation into more than 50 universities sent a “chilling” message, causing many universities and researchers to stay silent to avoid risking their funding, the statement read.

“The quest for truth — the mission of science — requires that scientists freely explore new questions and report their findings honestly, independent of special interests. The administration is engaging in censorship, destroying this independence,” the statement read. “If our country’s research enterprise is dismantled, we will lose our scientific edge.”

The statement claimed federal funding cuts leading to universities pausing grants, dismissing faculty and stopping the enrollment of graduate students — which includes some Ph.D. students at USC, as reported by Morning, Trojan — could cause damages that will take decades to reverse.