A diverse crowd packed the University’s quad Wednesday as dozens of students and other members of the LSU community participated in a walk out to protest President Donald Trump’s recent executive order halting travel from seven majority Muslim nations.
Anthropology graduate student Melinda Gonzalez led the demonstration, which included several student speakers, chants and a closing prayer.
“I am glad to see so many different people here to support us in this movement,” Gonzalez said.
Students passed a sign-up sheet around the crowd, asking those interested in learning about future events to sign. Speakers also said this protest was going to be the start of the movement.
Three University professors presented a petition asking the University administration to issue an “immediate statement in full support of all international students, faculty, and staff – especially those targeted by recent executive orders.”
The petition also urges the University to publish guidelines for protecting international students on campus. As of Wednesday afternoon, over 400 people had signed the petition. The petition will be delivered to Alexander on Thursday.
“This decision deeply affects approximately 120 LSU students, along with several faculty and staff members from the banned countries,” the petition says. “These are valuable and respected members of our community. They teach our courses, serve as our TAs and tutors, attend our classes, cheer next to us at football games, and help our campus flourish. In other words, ‘they’ are ‘us.’ We are stronger precisely because we are a diverse community.”
History professor Brendan Karch read snippets of an email from an Iranian student who has not been able to begin their studies at the University because of the order.
Around 118 University students are from countries targeted by Trump’s executive order, as The Daily Reveille previously reported.

Gallery • 30 Photos

Ryan McCarble

LSU senior political science and Spanish major Morgan Johnson exhibits her opinion about the immigration executive order on Feb. 1, 2017 in the Quad.