Soren Spicknall
TECH N EWS WRITER

On many college campuses in the
United States, rallyecentric activism is part of
the fabric of student life Especially at massive
state schools, a wide array of political and social
groups protest and march to gain attention for
the topics they feel deserve administrative
action Informed by tactics and traditions most
exemplified by movements of the 1960s (but
which date back further,) these demonstrations
are often coordinated to achieve maximum
visibility, and are often controversial for
what some see as unreasonable demands
and deadlines, but which others proclaim are
necessary pressures in order to create change

On Thursday, March 3,
Undocumented Students and Allies (USA)
joined the ranks of campus activists across
the country in a modified version of their
annual Coming Out of the Shadows event, a
threeehour protest that spanned three blocks
of campus and involved local newsemedia,
the Office of Marketing and Communications,
and eventually President Cramb himself
Orchestrated largely by USA president Egle
Malinauskaite, Coming Out ofthe Shadows was
intended to shed light on the unique challenges
faced by Illinois Tech’s undocumented student
population, and in recent years has been used
to advocate for the United Minds Inspiring
Innovation (UMII) Scholarship Initiative, a
proposed meritebased scholarship for select
undocumented students that is being put to
a referendum question during this Spring’s
SGA executive board elections However, this
year was very different, taking a much broader
scope than previous years’ eventsl

Coming Out of the Shadows began
last Thursday at 1 pm, with a reserved space
in the MTCC Welcome Center A set of chairs
was lined up for speakers and members of
USA’s executive board, and a table nearby

 

 

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Undocumented Students and Allies, with media in tow, deliver six demands to President Cramb

was adorned will all manner of promotional
materials in support of the UMII Scholarship
Initiative However, trouble soon began for
the group when news organizations arrived
at the event’s location, a fact that was not
communicated beforehand to the office of
Marketing and Communications Within
minutes of the event’s scheduled start, before
any speaker had taken to the mic, media was
informed that they could not film or record
audio inside the MTCC, since they had not
obtained permits to do so In response, a
member of USA announced that the event
would be moving outside the building to the
sidewalk along State Street, shouting “they are
trying to shut us down They want us to be
silent" Later in the day, this situation would
be presented from USA’s point of view on
the Illinois Tech Student Community (ITSC)
Facebook group, leading many to believe
that the protest was shut down because of
its content While many members of the
protest group asserted that Marketing and
Communications would not have made the
same decision if the topic covered was less
controversial, the office maintains that it was
simply enforcing university policies about
taping news segments in private campus
buildings

Once the group, about thirty strong,
moved outside the MTCC with their banners
and signs, reporters from the local outposts of
Univision, Telemundo, and another TV station
set up a media microphone stand for recording
and live coverage In order to be heard above
the din of traflic, speakers used a megaphone
that would later factor into the second half of
Coming Out of the Shadows, a march across
campus From approximately 1:10 pm to 2:00
pm, a wide range of individuals representing
the organization outlined their personal
grievances with Illinois Tech’s administration,
broadly focused onthe plight of undocumented
immigrants who attend school here Some

    

spoke in both English and Spanish, a nod to
the viewers of the stations covering the rally
and to their cultural identities in general
Behind them stood the rally group as a whole,
providing a backdrop of slogans scrawled on
canvases and cardboard

Because of their position just outside
the sliding door to the MTCC, the speeches
of the Coming Out of the Shadows group
were hard to ignore Students moving across
campus had to filter around the group to access
the MTCC, and many stopped to find out what
was going on. In addition, two of the television
stations present had blocked one northbound
lane of State Street next to the rally’s location,
causing local traflic to slow to a pace that
allowed passing drivers to read participants’
signs and assess the situation If forcing the
group out of the building was an act intended
to suffocate their cause, as some members of
USA claimed, it wasn’t very effective In fact,
the outdoor location for the event brought
a great deal more attention than their initial
spot

The first hour of the event proceeded
similarly to the traditional format of Coming
Out of the Shadows in other years, but the
group had a big surprise up their sleeve to
energize the group for the next phase The
USA Executive Board had drafted a list of six
“demands," tentatively unveiled at the previous
night’s SGA Senate hearing, that they intended
to deliver to Illinois Tech’s President, Alan
Crambl Expanding their mission wider than
ever before, those demands read as follows:

I We demand a freeze a tuition for
the 201772018 academic year at the 201672017
rate for incoming and current students

III We demand the release a public
statement from President Alan Cramb
recognizing the work of Undocumented
Students and Allies in the founding of
the scholarship, United Minds Inspiring
Innovation (UMII), and the inclusion of

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the referendum question pertaining to it in
the April 476th, 2016 Student Government
Association elections

1111 We demand Illinois Institute
of Technology creates and enforced
comprehensive awareness and inclusion
curriculum regarding the undocumented
community throughout all campus
departments and units, mandatory for all
faculty, staff, and administration for Fall 2016
This curriculum must be vetted, maintained,
and overseen by a board composed of USA’s
President and representatives from the Student
Access, Success, & Diversity Initiatives at
Illinois Tech (SASDI) Ofiicel

IV We demand that dehumanizing
raciallyecharged slurs, “illegal" and “alien",
be listed under examples of “harassment"
in the Student Handbook and appropriate
disciplinary actions be taken to hold anyone
in our community, including students, faculty,
and staff, using this form of hate speech
accountablel

V We demand President Alan
Cramb joins DePaul University’s President,
Rev Dennis Holtschneider, ClMl, in publicly
supporting the Student ACCESS Bill (SB
2196) for undocumented students in public
institutions statewide to be eligible for
institutional aidl

VII We demand by Fall of 2016 that
Illinois Institute of Technology uses the direct
input of undocumented students to create the
position for and hire an Associate Director
of Minority Outreach and Undocumented
Student Initiatives to work under the
supervision of Leroy Kennedy 7 VP of
Community Affairs & Outreach, modeled after
the undocumented student liaison position at
the University of Illinois at Chicago

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P am: by Abhinaya Iyer