Illustration Valerie Geelen Trump’s policy affects Wageningen’s science. Data is no longer available, and team members from the US withdraw from projects. A new step has now been taken. Two Wageningen researchers received a questionnaire by email, which was passed on to Resource. ‘Some of the questions are downright scary.’
Resource published a first overview of reactions from WUR community members who have seen Trump’s science policies reach as far as Wageningen Campus last Thursday. Data are no longer accessible, and an American expert withdrew from a research team. A new surprise crossed the Atlantic last week: two Wageningen researchers received a letter from the United States Geological Service (USGS) containing a list of 36 political questions, newspaper NRC reported on Friday. The two WUR researchers contribute to a project in which satellites monitor the state of forests and raise the alarm when deforestation occurs.
The message states that the USGS was tasked with gathering this information by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB. The OMB is the White House financial department. WUR told the newspaper that there is no reason to assume the mail is a hoax.
US fascism
Resource got its hands on the mail from WUR staff about and with the questionnaire. ‘The tentacles of emerging US authoritarianism are trying to enter WUR, some of the questions really give you goose bumps’, one of the recipients states. The other recipient specifically points out questions 15, 16 and 19. These questions call on the recipients to confirm that the project on which they are working is not a diversity, equity, and inclusion project or a climate project and that measures are taken to protect and defend women from gender ideology.
The email was immediately shared with Wageningen colleagues as well as with research directors from other universities. Recipients are advised not to complete the questionnaires. What will happen if researchers follow this advice (or not) is unclear.