If you walked by Talley last Friday anytime between noon and 2 p.m., chances are, you saw a gathering of people surrounding a podium with a speaker. If you stayed for a minute, you would know that the speaker was talking about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era immigration policy, and the effects ending it has on college students.
I myself came across this rally completely by accident. I was on my way to get a smoothie when I heard the voice of several speakers, each talking about the effects ending DACA had on college students, each with slightly different perspectives and opinions, but all with one central message: what the president had done was wrong.
I realized as I was watching that I had never seen such a public display of the First Amendment in person. I had seen rallies on TV and I had heard of rallies in Raleigh and Durham, but I had never actually ever been part of a political movement personally.
I further came to the conclusion that whether you agree with them or not, rallies like these expose college students to real-life issues, provide a platform for them to speak freely about problems and should therefore be encouraged by the entire student body. These events have an immense positive impact on NC State and should happen more often.
Mariana Andreu-Sanz, a third-year student studying biology and anthropology, was one of the speakers talking about the effect ending DACA had on the Latinx community. When asked, she said that her goal for this rally was to “talk to as many people as I can [and] contact senators” as well as wanting “to let everyone know that you can speak up, you just have to ask to speak up”.
Goals regarding free speech and rallies like the ones Mariana mentioned are obviously at least being passively respected by the administration at NC State. This was obvious by Friday’s uncontested rally, which was well organized, if not a little loud (which isn’t a bad thing).
It’s important that NC State shows this kind of passive respect that it did for this rally in future rallies. Allowing students to project their opinions on a public platform should be of high priority to the administration, whether the administration decides in the end to side with that opinion or not.
What rallies like these really need is support from the student body. The group outside Talley was certainly nothing to scoff at, but I did feel it could be larger. Students at NC State shouldn’t feel ashamed to express their feelings about a national policy change that could affect somebody they know, and should be encouraged by everyone to speak out, no matter their opinion.
With more policy changes coming in the Trump administration that could affect students — such as Betsy DeVos’ recent changes to the due process involved in on campus rape cases — protests and expressing points of view should especially be encouraged now while it matters most.
Furthermore, events like these serve as an important part of college. They give an opportunity for people to exercise their First Amendment, they provide a platform for individuals to express themselves, they show how the issues we see on the news affect people in real life and they also inform students that might otherwise be unaware of current problems affecting their peers.
Often times events like these can spark controversy and even extreme actions. People with clashing ideologies often meet on college campuses, as they are so open for free speech.
When I asked Mariana about why she thought college campuses are a center of free speech, even when it is ignorant speech, she answered by saying, “People are raised with certain values and certain viewpoints, and when they get to college they get to express themselves, and it’s a completely ignorant viewpoint”
Whether you agree with what the protest, the rally or the march is about is irrelevant to whether it should happen or not. What matters is that everyone’s concerns should be treated with at least the respect that comes in hearing them out.
Lastly, I should mention that after a rally about DACA it can be extremely easy to say such a thing — that free speech matters and should be respected on campus. It is an issue that has much stronger support on one side than the other.
But with the world of politics being as hostile as it is, issues don’t always work out to have such clear answers. Often times the sides of good and bad blur depending on what your perspective is. During times like this NC State’s administration could find it extremely easy to not allow rallies expressing an opinion on one or more sides of these hot-button issues.
At times like that the NC State administration should also keep in mind that the opinions expressed at student-organized rallies in no way reflect the opinion of the administration, and that even if certain issues feel more uncomfortable than others, they should be welcomed with the same respect that last Friday’s rally was. After all these are issues that affect the real world, and we will have to deal with them eventually, one way or another.
At the end of the day, NC State’s administration should treat all rallies equally, even if the majority does not agree.
