By STEVEN SPEARS
Managing Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — More than 300 students gathered in protest of President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday at the speaker’s commons outside the Martin Building at the University of Central Missouri.

The protest began with a small group of roughly 25 students congregating around the speaker’s commons, and then grew to more than 300 individuals chanting and cursing anti-Trump slogans and speaking about unity, civil rights and equality. The UCM Department of Public Safety received no reports of injuries related to the protest.

Kyra Gross, senior studio painting major and the protest’s organizer, said the protest was not affiliated with any student organizations, although some came out to show support. She said the protest was a reaction to hate crimes on campus.

“I woke up with news that a UCM student has been spit on and that there were other hate crimes on campus, and the bigot is our president, so I just posted a place and a time,” she said.

Gross said the protest is not just about Trump, it’s also about finding likeminded students who can support and protect one another.

“It can feel pretty lonely being a person of color or an immigrant or anybody in the LGBTQI community right now,” she said. “And (I) just wanted to show people that they weren’t alone during Trump’s presidency.”

A group of students who support Trump collected near the protest. Steven Granier, junior marketing major, said he respects what the protestors are doing – he just wanted to be there to support his candidate.

“We love that they’re able to come out and protest,” Granier said. “That is their right. It is their God-given right, their American right. We also have a right to be here to support the candidate that was elected: President-elect Donald Trump. That’s our right to support him as well.”

Granier said although he doesn’t agree with the protestors, both sides need to come together.

“We do not hate them,” he said. “We want to be united as a country. We have to come together and do what we have to do to make this country better. Just because we differ in opinion does not mean that we are not all Americans. We are all Americans who actually love each other. They are right when (they say) we need to love each other.”

Jay Todd said he saw a flier about the protest in one of his classes and decided to attend to show support for his community. He also said the protest is about much more than Trump.

“It’s about us being killed and murdered and slaughtered,” he said. “It’s about us being a modern-day slavery. It’s about us not having equal rights. It’s about us not having a voice when we’re told (we do), and they’re lying to us saying that we do. That’s what it’s about.”

After marching from the Martin Building to the Multipurpose Building parking lot, protestors met with President Chuck Ambrose in the Multicultural Center for Inclusivity to talk about the issues facing campus.