UMass Amherst students stage walkout after Trump's election: 'things got a lot worse'
The student group associated with the Sunrise Movement organized a “Walkout Against Trump.”
University of Virginia students organized a similar protest last week.
University of Massachusetts at Amherst students staged a walkout against President-Elect Donald Trump and advocated for more aggressive climate change policies.
The University of Massachusett’s Sunrise Movement chapter organized the protest, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian reported. Seventy-five students attended the protest on Nov 8.
“This election has left many of us feeling angry, scared, and hopeless,” the student group’s Instagram post announcing the protest said. “But we will not stand by and watch our climate and our futures be destroyed. We will keep fighting for our future and our planet.”
According to its website, the Sunrise Movement is a national organization “fighting for what science demands – government action that actually meets the scale, scope and urgency of the climate crisis.”
The walkout’s central theme was that climate change is approaching unsustainable levels and will worsen under Donald Trump.
“I’m sorry this is how the world is right now,” Brendan Post, Sunrise Movement UMass’s campaigns coordinator, told the protesters. “This election, either way certain things weren’t going to change, but things got a lot worse, people, things got a lot worse.”
“We have six years to get our s— together, and our president in [a] few months doesn’t believe the climate is changing,” he continued.
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Other students said the demonstration communicated that young people care about climate change and will demand political action.
“The youth generation will fight for a future that we want to live in,” Daniel Shapiro, another Sunrise UMass leader, said. “That is the main goal of this – to just show people that we are here and we’re not going anywhere.”
“We voted, it didn’t work,” Post continued. “Now we organize. We strike. We need to be strong for each other. We need to build strong communities to check in on each other and be there for each other.”
Other college and university Sunrise chapters held similar protests last week. Students at the University of Virginia also held a protest against Trump on Nov. 8 as well.
“I don’t want this speech to be about why you should hate Donald Trump,” one student said, “but we are here disappointed and also desperate for something to grab hold of – to feel some sense of control.”
Campus Reform contacted the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
