Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Supporters in Madison, Miss., on March 7, 2016. (Photo: Justin Sellers, The Clarion-Ledger)
If three is officially a trend, chalking is now<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a trendy — and highly controversial — way for Donald Trump fans to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>show their love.
This week, two schools — the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — jumped into the chalking fray, joining the headlines made in March at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Emory University with pro-Trump messages scrawled on campus grounds.
Following a now-familiar timeline, the chalked messages appeared and the storms followed. At UTC, it hit the student government.
Hailey Puckett, a member of a UTC student government coalition called Empower UTC<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who chalked “Trump 2016” on April 5,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was asked to resign by fellow coalition members.
Empower’s stance did not go over well with some students, who responded along the lines of this tweet.
I am personally calling for the impeachment of @UTCSGA PRESIDENT @EMPOWERPhillip after his blatant violation of free speech and civil rights
— Austin Sanders (@ASanders_22) April 6, 2016
The next<span style="color: Red;">*</span>day,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>EMPOWER UTC members Phillip Stubblefield and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mikayla Long posted apologies.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Stubblefield noted that his words had been poorly chosen. “I fully support every individual’s First Amendment rights and the senator-elect has every right to support any<span style="color: Red;">*</span>candidate of her choosing,” he wrote.
I feel that I have to express my honest opinions and that I have to represent all students. pic.twitter.com/m7JxhpM3HF
— Phillip Stubblefield (@EMPOWERPhillip) April 6, 2016
Long apologized and noted that “Hailey was asked by EMPOWER to resign from SGA because she disregarded her responsibility as an elected senator to represent the students that elected her. Her statement, ‘Super proud of our art work, but I have a feeling half of UTCs campus is going to hate it’ does not show that she is currently prepared to represent students effectively. That is the sole reason we asked her to resign.”
Regarding recent events: pic.twitter.com/xITD8o1SxH
— Mikayla Long (@mikaylasheaIong) April 6, 2016
Puckett’s message<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was later<span style="color: Red;">*</span>washed off by students who then chalked the message, “Black UTC supports unity” in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>its place, reports student newspaper The University Echo. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Since, then, the newspaper says, other messages have been chalked, ranging from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“Power C 4 Trump,” to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“UTC supports Hailey,” “UTC supports Black UTC” to a “Trump 2016.”
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>school has released a statement saying in part,”Diversity — including diversity of thought — is a core value of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This idea was put to the test when a question of free speech developed between several groups of students. …<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The heated dialogue that resulted was unfortunate but serves as a teachable moment for our students and the incoming student government leadership.
“The UTC administration has not played a role in this debate.”
Also on April 5,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>chalk messages were written on the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. They included, “They have to go back #Trump,” “Build the Wall” and “Trump Deportation Force.”
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>messages appeared near the campus’ Latina/Latino Studies building.
In an email sent to the school community and obtained by USA TODAY College, the school said in part, “We value discourse while also recognizing that offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment. The best recourse to speech with which we disagree is more speech.”
In a statement to the campus, Jonathan Inda, chair of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies, called the chalking “unacceptable.”
“It is no coincidence that a ‘Trump’ message was scrawled in front of the Department of Latino/Latina Studies building. Such a message was not intended to advance political dialogue, but to psychologically wound, breed intolerance, and create an atmosphere of insecurity for Latina/os on campus,” he said.
At Emory, students claimed they were “in pain” after seeing “Trump 2016” tagged on campus. The drawings led a few dozen students to protest the school’s administration building,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The Emory Wheel reported.
Emory University Students Afraid Of This And It Proves Millennials R Pansies | RedState https://t.co/iCilyeF7DS pic.twitter.com/0DGsjB96jQ
— Elisabeth (@10thAmendment) March 24, 2016
Students at various schools have expressed their concerns with the drawings
Just came out of lunch and there's "trump" written in chalk all over my school nice
— Cam ? (@qc_cam) April 7, 2016
Hearing that someone supports Donald Trump is like hearing nails on a chalk board.)))))
— Ethan's girl ?? (@AbbyMcGuire31) April 7, 2016
The trump wars are getting out of hand on campus y'all. The chalk art is just getting outrageous
— Keimi Elizabeth (@keimibeth) April 7, 2016
Someone wrote Trump 2016 all big in chalk in the yard ??
— sydney jetmore (@liilTokyo) April 7, 2016
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