Last Thursday, a group of students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the community gathered together in two separate locations just outside BYU campus to protest a campus-sponsored career fair, which hosted the US Customs and Border Patrol at one of the booths.
The morning of the career fair started with a protest at 10:00am organized by BYUSA student body presidential candidate Annie Walker and her running mate Salma Al-Shuqairat. Dozens of people gathered near the Wilkinson Student Center, where the career fair was being held, and at about noon, they walked to BYU’s entrance on Cougar Boulevard to continue the protest. Protestors arrived carrying signs with a variety of messages, such as “The pioneers were illegal immigrants,” and “No ICE in Provo.” The crowd also participated in various chants, including “Up up with liberation, down down with deportation,” which was led out by Walker, along with “Hey hey, ho ho, border patrol has got to go.”
Social media posts advertising the morning protest were first shared on Annie Walker’s Instagram story Wednesday morning and were then briefly posted on the BYU College Democrats’ Instagram page before they were instructed to take the post down.
While Walker has remained guarded regarding her involvement in planning the protest, various reporters from the Cougar Chronicle spoke with her and quoted her as stating that she was “heavily involved with the protest.” She also took charge of the crowd at many points, using a megaphone to lead chants.
Meanwhile, when speaking to Al-Shuqairat about the organization of the protest, she proudly shared that “it was Annie” who put in the work to make it happen.
As Student Body President and Vice President, Walker and Al-Shuqairat would be representing BYU, the flagship university of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Student body presidents are elected directly by BYU students each year, with this year’s election date being February 26th from 6 am to 6 pm. The university’s student association (BYUSA) charter states: “The primary role of the president is to facilitate connection for individual students by making leadership opportunities and student-focused experiences more relatable and accessible. The president directs the work of the presidency, meets with university administrators in an advisory function as needed, and acts as the official student spokesperson at the university.” Thus, the student body president serves not only as a representative on behalf of the entirety of BYU’s student population, but also to advise university administrators, and if someone from outside the university wishes to speak to a representative of the students, they would meet with the SBP.
A key responsibility to take into account in conjunction with these ICE protests, and a candidate’s involvement in them, is their duty: “Facilitate, maintain, and expand the dialogue and collaboration between various student leaders across campus.” After these protests in which students with opposing views were treated with more hostility and less respect than communist, anti-capitalist organizations such as Mormons with Hope, students with conservative values may question if they will be adequately represented and considered if the organizers of the protests are the ones elected to represent the school.
Cover Photo Source: Keating Mitchell, The Cougar Chronicle
