Students Petition To Cancel Trump's Chicago Campaign Stop At UIC

By Mae Rice in News on Mar 7, 2016 5:36PM

Donald Trump is slated to hold a rally in UIC Pavilion on Friday, four days before the Illinois primary—and despite vociferous calls for the rally’s cancellation, the University of Illinois at Chicago stands firm on its decision to rent the arena to Trump.

More than 40,000 people have signed a MoveOn petition to cancel the event. The petition’s background section reads, in part:

UIC is home to working students, immigrant, and students of color to have access to higher education and graduate.

The platform Donald Trump would announce at the UIC Pavilion is a direct attack on much of the UIC student body - from mass deportation to a ban on muslims to a refusal to denounce the KKK, not to mention regular insults to women.

This past Saturday, however, UIC Chancellor Michael D. Amiridis released a statement reiterating that, though the university “is not endorsing, sponsoring or supporting any candidate for political office,” UIC plans to move forward with the venue rental.

Amiridis writes:

UIC’s core values of freedom, equality and social justice for all, regardless of race, religion, national origin, disability status or sexual orientation, are deeply rooted in our diverse community and not endangered by the presence of any political candidate on campus. We encourage public and civic engagement by all members of our University and we endorse the idea that the answer to speech that one does not like or finds offensive is more speech and not censorship.

Even though UIC plans to move forward with the rally, Trump’s opponents will make themselves heard. Almost 8,000 people plan to peacefully protest the rally outside the UIC Pavilion starting at 3 p.m., according to Facebook.

Protesters will then attend the rally, which starts at 6 p.m., and stage a walkout, it seems, though their plans are subject to change.

The protest Facebook event cites many of the same grievances with Trump that the MoveOn petition does, along with assorted others.

“Trump has advocated for war crimes such as but not limited to torture-interrogation, mass murder as a warning, the intentional murder of entire civilian families, and the in-discriminatory bombing of countries in the Middle East,” one bullet point in the event description notes.

Friday's Trump rally is free, though tickets are required; for context, here's our report from a Donald Trump rally back in November.