WVU Students, Community Members Participate In Nationwide Protest On Campus

A nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies aimed to bring protestors to all 50 state capitols simultaneously Wednesday, but students unable to make it down to Charleston held their own demonstration at West Virginia University. 

Around 75 people showed up to the campus “free speech zone” in front of the student union at WVU’s Morgantown campus to protest the closing of the university’s office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as other federal and state actions.

Marin Dagger, a third-year science major who helped organize the demonstration, said the peaceful protest was meant to show leaders and policymakers that opposition exists.

“Try to make the university, and the administration even, maybe even the state officials, see we are here,” she said. “We aren’t going to just sit here and be complacent in (the face of) these harmful actions that are affecting marginalized communities.”

As a trans woman, Dagger said she has at times felt unsafe and alone on campus but being approached by other members of the LGBTQ community emboldened her to organize around this issue. Dagger said the protest was in part to show opposition to state and federal actions affecting marginalized communities, but also to show solidarity and support.

“We can all work together and everyone here is not your enemy,” Dagger said. “More people are full of love and trying to get people’s rights back than it may seem.”

Students that came out to the event, like senior Gabriela Reyes of Pendleton County, expressed concern that executive orders targeting transgender athletes or undocumented immigrants is only the beginning of a larger erosion of rights.

“I don’t think some people understand that, that it’s not just others, people who they think aren’t like them,” Reyes said. “It affects everyone, and I think it’s just important to protect our freedoms and our rights.”

Reyes said she hopes to see the Student Government Association take a stand at their weekly meeting Wednesday night.

Students were also joined by community members like Ginny Aultman-Moore. A retired social worker, Aultman-Moore said she doesn’t expect the demonstration to change a lot.

“I don’t know that they change a whole lot, except for the hearts of the people that participate in them,” she said. “I know that I need this at this moment. I need to connect with other people. I also would like my representatives to hear my voice. I have been calling them, and I would encourage everyone to let their representatives know how they feel about what’s going on right now.”

Organizers say more protests are likely.