Students Let Voices Be Heard at “No Ban, No Wall” Rally

Kent’s Friday afternoon weather wasn’t what many would call ideal. With temperatures in the mid-20s, 15 mph winds and a steady snowfall, much of the Kent State population weren’t walking along the esplanade. However, the frigid conditions did not deter Kent State student demonstrators.

 

On March 10 at 2 p.m., protesters gathered on Risman Plaza for the “No Ban, No Wall: Make Kent State a Sanctuary Campus” rally and protest, hosted by the Student Power Coalition. Supporters of the rally participated in chants like “Hey Bev, step off it! Put students over profit!” and “Students will fight! Immigration is a right!”

 

Rally participants not only showed support for the movement to make Kent State a sanctuary campus, but showed their opposition to many of President Trump’s actions since he has taken office. Demonstrators frequently referenced the president’s policies that seem to target immigrants, specifically his executive order that many refer to as an immigration ban.

 

Rally speaker and sophomore speech pathology and audiology major Aylin Chagolia, delivered an impassioned speech, fighting tears as she urged the crowd to look past the messages of inequality she feels the president represents. While she herself was born in the United States, she cited that both of her parents are immigrants from Mexico. She said they came to the U.S. with no ill-intention; only with the goal of making their lives better.

 

“It’s our job to speak up for those who can’t out of fear,” she said. “My family has expressed, through all these difficult conversations that we had to have, they have said…’We’re not here to take anything from you. All we’re doing is getting a better life for our family. Giving back to the place that has become our home.’ “

 

Protesters also held a bevy of homemade signs with equally insistent phrases: “No ban. No wall.” and “Trump is the symptom. Capitalism is the disease. Revolution is the cure.”

 

Student Power Coalition member Kelly Cunningham lead the group’s chants.

 

“I was out marching today because I believe that Kent State should be a sanctuary campus,” Cunningham said. “I think that every student has the right to a safe space; has the right to legal representation, and has the right to know that when they go visit their family, they’ll have a safe space to come back to and be educated.”

 

Standing across from the Student Power Coalition ralliers were a small group of students with President Trump flags in hand. Colten Dalton, a junior nursing major, stood alongside them, holding a sign that read: “Grants. Loans. FUNDING.” Dalton opposes the view that Kent State should become a sanctuary campus.

 

“Trump has already vowed to end funding for sanctuary cities, so what’s stopping him from ending our funding here?” he said. “That includes research grants as well. Actually, we just got a research grant for Alzheimer’s disease for ($444,000) over the next three years, and that could be stripped away because of a sanctuary campus where probably less than one percent are illegals anyways.”

 

Both groups marched around the Student Center, despite the Student Power Coalition’s original plan to march across campus. The march route was changed because of the below-freezing temperatures and the presence of the anti-sanctuary campus protesters.

 

While the Student Power Coalition was OK with Dalton and his colleagues expressing their views with their own protest, they felt that at times the group was infringing upon their own message during the march.

 

“The protesters, who were protesting our protest, got in the way of us and were making it look like they were leading the protest when in actuality they were not,” Cunningham said. “And so we had to change routes very quickly, so the route we took was not planned.”

 

Dalton did acknowledged that he and fellow Trump supporters were trying to march in front of the rally at times, but they were only practicing their first amendment right to free-speech — not just as U.S. citizens but as students at Kent State.

 

Minor conflict aside, the cold March afternoon was a time for anyone to make their opinions known, regardless of conflicting political opinions.

 

“They have every right to be here as much as we do,” said Grace Goodluck, Student Power Coalition Member and senior political science major.