‘No ban, no wall’ protestors congregate at Tommy Trojan despite the rain
Sponsored by the USC Muslim Student Union, Black Student Assembly at USC, Students Organize 4 Syria at USC, Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, and USC Students for Justice in Palestine General Body
The rain may come and go, but a Friday afternoon protest at USC is a constant under President Trump. Members of the Muslim Student Union, Black Student Assembly and Trojan Advocates for Political Progress weathered the drizzle and congregated at Tommy Trojan in Hahn Plaza for the “No ban, no wall” rally.
Dunn, Monahan and campaign manager Paul Breslin
In attendance were USG presidential nominee Austin Dunn and his running mate Morgan Monahan, who have recently come under fire for violating online campaigning rules.
“I think this is something that Morgan and I are actually super passionate about, and if elected next year — we posted an article about this on our Facebook page — that there are 252 students affected by the immigration ban that we’ll help,” said Dunn, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s in political science and a Master’s in public diplomacy. “Even though that might be a small portion in regards to the 19,000 students on this campus, we think that Trojan deserves support, and we plan to hold the administration accountable through our ability to do that.”
The demands of the crowd varied, with the Black Student Assembly asking for USC to declare itself as an official sanctuary campus, despite Los Angeles already being a sanctuary city. By contrast, the Muslim Student Union declare itself a “sanctuary space,” asking for different official demands from the university.
“This is MSU’s way of increasing our presence and showing solidarity, because we do have specific demands of the university that we want,” said the Secretary of the MSU, Noha Ayoub, a law, history and culture major with a minor in Middle East studies. “I think that the best way to do that is if other people know what we’re doing and we coordinate with other organizations.”
“Right now, what we’re specifically demanding is an increase of attorneys and counselors for our students,” she added. “Today we’re mostly asking for solidarity from the students and the administration.”
Flyers distributed at the rally
“I’m here on behalf of the BSA to stand in solidarity with all of the communities that are being targeted and whose livelihoods are in jeopardy as a result of the most recent executive orders,” said Ahlia Bethea, the head of the Black Student Assembly. “Our peers both in and outside of the black community, many of them are unable to come back to the country because they were in travel when the order was being put into effect.”
Unlike the MSU, the BSA was officially calling for USC to declare itself a sanctuary campus.
Members of the MSU invited attendees to join them to pray at a mosque on Vermont and Exposition following the rally.
Administrators at the rally declined to speak with the press.