One by one on Wednesday, students in Free Speech Plaza signedtheir names in support of the peaceful protest to bring unitythrough diversity to campus.
“This gives students a voice,” said Alicia Calvin, a politicalscience and English senior, gesturing to the unity petition markedwith students’ signatures.
The protest was initiated by the cancellation of Homecomingconcert act, popular Capitol Records rapper Chingy. Steven Nelson,a political science senior, said Chingy would have brought adiverse crowd to the Homecoming festivities.
“There would have been people from all different ethnic andracial backgrounds, different socioeconomic and age levels,” Nelsonsaid. “The committee has tried in the past to reach a diverse crowdbut has not been successful. The [white] fraternities andsororities are the only people who attend.”
The protesters said the reason behind the petitioning andprotesting has gone from the cancellation of the Chingy concertbecause of “offensive” lyrics to campus unity. Nelson said thepetitioners realize Homecoming is a month away, making thepossibility of Chingy being rescheduled impractical, but protesterssaid they will no longer be silent.
“Music is a way to reach across cultural barriers,” Calvin said.”Students are usually not involved in homecoming, but thisperformance would have broken that tradition and got a diversegroup of students excited and involved.”
Nelson said the cancellation of Chingy’s performance can becompared to the match that set off the bomb. He said the minoritygroups on campus are tired of not being recognized by theadministration, or being treated differently when elected into astudent office.
“This not a black issue, a white issue, an Asian, Hispanic orany other race issue,” Nelson said. “We are all purple and goldhere, and we have to work together and listen to each other to havethe University meet our needs.”
Westley Bayas, a political science senior, said he is anxious tosee how something like this will affect minority enrollment at theUniversity.
“If the University is trying to raise [minority] enrollment thanthis will affect the mindset of the students who are currentlyenrolled and trying to recruit new students,” said Bayas.
Bayas said even though minorities do have a voice, theadministration does not listen. He said although minorities are newon campus as a community, progress has been and is continuing to bemade, but it is still not finished.
Nelson said the supporters behind this protest will hold aseries of meetings in the upcoming weeks to see what the next bigstep will be to unify the campus.