By STEVEN SPEARS
Managing Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Many UCM students aren’t happy with the nation’s choice of president.

Students gathered in protest of President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, Nov. 10, at the speaker’s commons outside the Martin Building. 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 protest was interrupted on two occasions when an unknown individual shot fireworks into the crowd of students. Scott Rhoad, director of UCM Public Safety, said he received no reports of injuries related to the fireworks.

“To my knowledge as far as I know no one was injured and it was a very unfortunate event for a peaceful protest,” Rhoad said.

Protesters were at the speaker’s commons for more than an hour before marching across campus to the Multipurpose Building parking lot. Along the way, student-protestors were nearly run over by a truck while crossing the street at the corner of Clark and Holden streets.

Tameka Poppars, senior criminal justice major, said the driver tried driving through the group of protestors before flicking a cigarette at a student.

“He tried to go through the crowd with his truck,” Poppars said. “He did not want to stop and let the protestors walk past. He kept pushing on the gas, trying to hit the students with his truck.”

The same truck followed protestors to the parking lot of the Multipurpose Building and, with another truck, did doughnuts around the protestors before being chased away by police officers on foot. Rhoad said no one was injured.

Kyra Gross, senior studio painting major and the protest’s organizer, said the protest is 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 her initial plan was to distribute literature to students who showed up about what Trump is planning to do while in office. She said everything else naturally happened and she hopes it can bring a sense of solidarity to the campus community.

“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.

“Walking around, you don’t know who’s feeling what, who sees you in a certain light and who maybe is a danger to you,” she said. “So the reality, first and foremost, was just a collection of people – likeminded people – who were saying ‘No matter what, I care about you. I’m looking out for you on campus. I agree with you. I see what you have to say.’”

Christopher Cooper, graduate student in sociology, saw a flier Gross had posted on campus and made a Facebook event for the demonstration. He said the protest was in response to Trump’s election, but it was also in response to instances of harassment and aggression at UCM.

“What we’re really responding to is the acts of harassment and aggression toward marginalized people from his supporters since he’s been elected,” Cooper said. “So what I wanted to do, and I believe it’s similar to what Kyra wanted to do, is get people together to be able to collectively stand together and express their concerns and try to find a way to strengthen each other as one community and move forward. Him being president, that’s one thing, but people being spit on (while) on campus – probably for the color of their skin – is another issue.”

A group of nearly 20 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, junior psychology major, 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.”

Poppars said she decided to protest because she doesn’t like what’s happening at UCM.

“I don’t like the way our students are being treated because of their personal beliefs, and how they feel, and their religion, and what sexual orientation they choose to have – that’s their business,” she said. “But you cannot discriminate against students who want to stand out and be different.”

The protest ended with a group prayer and students hugging one another in front of the Elliott Student Union, before meeting with President Chuck Ambrose at the Center for Multiculturalism and Inclusivity to speak about the issues facing campus.

Both Trump supporters and students standing in protest were present for the meeting with Ambrose. Cooper said ending the night with a discussion between the two sides was good for everyone.

“I think it was a really good way for everyone to just calm down and start thinking about this from a really practical point of view,” he said. “I’m really happy that President Ambrose was willing to do that.”

Cooper said there were a lot of conversations between the student protestors and students who support Trump. He said the discussion allowed people to find common ground.

“I think that’s the beginning of something really good because this election has divided the country more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” Cooper said. “Anything that we can do to start mending that brokenness is a positive thing. And that happened last night.”

Gross said there has to be an intersectional meeting of student leaders where they can openly talk about the issues facing the campus.

“If there is no dialogue being had across that line, it’s going to continue being divided and that fear of the unknown – what another group will do – will continue to put people in fear and continue to perpetuate misunderstanding,” she said.