UPDATED: Nov. 17 at 1:48 p.m.

Stretching the length of the University Place promenade, several hundred students called out phrases such as “we reject the president-elect,” “no human is illegal” and “climate change is real.”

In the largest demonstration against President-elect Donald Trump on campus thus far, Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF community members stopped their daily routines on Wednesday afternoon and walked out to the Quad to protest Trump’s rhetoric on immigration, LGBTQ issues, race and the environment.

At about 3 p.m., community members poured onto the Quad. The crowd soon swelled to hundreds of people, mostly SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students, faculty and staff.

Katie Oran, a junior environmental communications major at SUNY-ESF and one of the event’s organizers, said the Department of Public Safety told organizers about 1,000 people took part in the protest.

“I’m excited to see so many different faces here that I haven’t seen before at protests and marches and rallies,” Oran said. “A lot of students who haven’t been actively engaged in organizing are really excited to jump into that right now … and I really hope to foster that kind of activist atmosphere.”

Protesters on Wednesday chanted in support of the rights of various marginalized groups, including LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, women and people of color. Onlookers gathered alongside the marchers’ route to watch and film the protest.

Sam Ogozalek | Staff Writer

The rally and march, called National Walkout at SU, was part of a nationwide “sanctuary campus” protest that took place on college campuses across the country, including at Brown University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Pittsburgh, Tufts University and Stanford University.

The National Walkout movement was sparked by an organization called Movimiento Cosecha (Harvest Movement), which seeks to provide dignity and protection for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., according to its Facebook page.

The Syracuse event was organized by students from a group called the Coalition for Justice, which was formed Friday in response to Trump’s election and his rhetoric, Oran said.

The walk-out was intended to pressure university officials to adopt the Coalition for Justice’s list of demands, said Brandon Daniels, a graduate student in the communication and rhetorical studies program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and a member of the International Socialist Organization.

Those demands include preventing officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering the SU campus and keeping the documentation status of students confidential.

These goals are part of the movement’s overarching aim to make SU into a “sanctuary campus,” or a safe place for students who are undocumented.

A petition asking SU and SUNY-ESF administrators to take steps to shield undocumented students from deportation is being circulated and has garnered more than 100 signatures as of 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Daniels said he also hopes the movement will prompt broader changes to protect marginalized people and those he says Trump’s rhetoric has threatened.

“It’s more than just putting on a safety pin, it’s actually changing the institutions,” he said.

Alexis Rinck, a senior political science and sociology double major at SU who was also one of the organizers, said college campuses need to be safe spaces for undocumented immigrants and people of marginalized identities.

“(Our goal is) making the university a safe environment not only for protecting undocumented students from being deported, but … for people of color, Muslims (and) members of the (LGBTQ) community,” Rinck said.

Rinck, who is president of the SU chapter of Democracy Matters, said she has always been a “political person” but that this issue impacted her in a personal way because of her roots as a Latina woman from California and her relationships with people who are undocumented.

While those gathered were mostly in favor of a sanctuary campus, there were a few dissenting voices.

Shawn Wilson, a senior mechanical engineering major who was wearing a T-shirt that read “Trump will make America great again,” said he feels people who gathered in the protest label all Trump supporters as racist and uneducated.

He said Trump supporters like himself are pressured into not talking about their political beliefs.

“I feel that (Trump supporters) are almost swallowed,” Wilson said of the campus climate at SU.

Sam Ogozalek | Staff Writer

After a few speakers gave their remarks, the crowd began marching toward University Place, down the promenade and around the Carrier Dome, eventually gathering on the SUNY-ESF Quad in front of the Franklin F. Moon Library, where several speakers stood on a concrete wall to give short speeches.

Khianna Calica, a senior television, radio and film major at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at SU, recalled crying in her room the night of the election as the results came in. She said her mother told her, “You sleep tonight, you fight tomorrow.”

“The time is now, the fight starts now!” she exclaimed, drawing cheers and applauses from the crowd.

Maysam Seraji, a junior political science major and a transgender Muslim student from Iran, reminded the crowd this week is Transgender Week of Remembrance and that there has been a rise of hate crimes after Trump was elected.

“As a trans person of color and a trans Muslim person, I wanted to give a space for some trans voices to be heard,” Seraji said after speaking to the crowd.

Toward the end of the protest, Bryan Sanchez, a sophomore television, radio and film major in Newhouse, took a megaphone and shared his family’s story about moving from Mexico to the United States more than 20 years ago. His father, Sanchez recalled, organized a lunch for Sanchez’s cousin and his platoon in 2004 and thanked the member for their sacrifices.

When Sanchez heard Trump won the election, he lamented as he recalled Trump calling Mexicans rapists and looters. Seeing the turnout at the protest against Trump and his rhetoric encouraged Sanchez not to give up, he said.

“It’s seeing everyone here in front of me today, coming out and manifesting for this great cause that keeps me faithful in being an American,” he said.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Maysam Seraji was misnamed. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 17, 2016 at 1:51 am

Contact Satoshi: ssugiyam@syr.edu | @SatoshiJournal