SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga held a protest Friday afternoon to urge the university to stand up against hate, fascism and recent attacks on higher education.
This comes days after the university announced that the federal government revoked two of its international students’ visas.
To begin the protest student activists addressed the crowd gathered on campus to participate in the protest. Among the speakers was Sebastian Pedinielli, a senior at Gonzaga.
“What I’m most passionate about is disclosure and divestment of Gonzaga’s endowment and weapons and any industries that aid the Israeli occupation,” Pedinielli said.
Pedinielli said one of the main goals of the protest was to bring attention to the two Gonzaga international students who had their visas recently revoked by the federal government.
“We wanted to definitely commend the action that the university has already taken with that, but also to emphasize how we have to be proactive in our defense for students,” he explained.
This was an issue on a lot of students’ minds.
“There is a lot of fear and I think this gathering was an attempt to recognize that fear and try and create a community and create some feeling of love and support,” said Leah Gulick, a sophomore at Gonzaga University”
Students also advocated for climate justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigrant rights during the march.
Protest Organizers were also calling on the university to protect all students, establish the university as a sanctuary campus, and stand by the values espoused in the university’s mission statement.
In response to the protest, Gonzaga University released the following statement that read in part:
Gonzaga University recognizes that campus demonstrations are an important way by which students and other members of the university community can give voice to their concerns about significant issues and events of our time. A fundamental principle which sits at the heart of Gonzaga’s educational mission is the commitment to freedom of expression. Our Jesuit values call upon us to seek justice, uphold the dignity of all persons and to build bridges of understanding that can lead to a more hopeful and peaceful future. We therefore respect the right of students, faculty, staff and administrators to exercise their intellectual freedom in the pursuit of these ends.
The protest ended with students leaving messages on the ground for the Gonzaga community.
In a previous version, we said the press release was from Gonzaga University when it was from student organizers.
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