Hundreds of Amherst College students conducted a class walkout, march and rally Feb. 1 on the steps of Converse Hall to express outrage at and solidarity against President Donald Trump’s executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
“We are at a tipping point, and it’s our responsibility to push back,” said Aubrey Grube ’18.
Students gathered at noon on Valentine quad, and the march proceeded in a wide arc to Converse, where a small group of other students had already started a sit-in in the outer offices of Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein and President Biddy Martin. The rallying students presented the College administration with a list of demands that include having the College provide legal support to students, faculty and staff affected by the ban and helping build a coalition with other institutions affected by the ban. The demands also include, among other items, a request to strengthen the International Students Office.
At the rally, Harith Khawaja '19 spoke of his father in Pakistan, who put his children’s education above all else, and who was able to see his son embrace the American promise of equal opportunity with acceptance at Amherst. That student said the election of Trump has left his father disillusioned.
“This law makes no sense on any level,” said Khawaja. “On the humanitarian level it is tragic. This is what my father wanted me to run away from.”
“I implore you, as much as I thank you for being here, to make the people around you feel belonged,” he said. “Please listen to your humanity and celebrate our diversity.”
“We unequivocally condemn the executive order and join our students in calling on the College administration to do the same,” said Deborah B. Gewertz, G. Henry Whitcomb Professor of Anthropology, reading a statement of support signed by more than 50 faculty members. “We reaffirm our principles of equality and democracy, and unconditionally reject the Trump regime's politics of racism and fear.”
A similar letter was read expressing support by alumni.
Rabbi Bruce Bromberg Seltzer, the College’s Jewish religious adviser, spoke of his grandfather Mendel Zekcer, a refugee from Russia who arrived in the United States in1921 and whose relatives perished in the Holocaust because they were unable to emigrate.
“We stand here in solidarity because of our values, because of our common humanity,” he said, noting that the Bible reminds us to be compassionate to the stranger, as we all have been strangers.
Trump’s executive order will result in “a more dangerous and heartless world,” Seltzer said.
A student read from “Home,” a poem by British Somali poet Warsan Shire that has become a rallying call for refugees and their advocates: “No one leaves home unless / home is the mouth of a shark … / you only leave home / when home won’t let you stay.”
President Martin later joined students outside Converse to condemn the executive order—which she said “weakens higher education and society as a whole”—and to emphasize the College’s commitment to doing everything possible to support students, staff and faculty who are affected by the ban.
