Student Union
Arizona Trump Rally Focuses on Youth Vote
Classic rock music, red Make America Great Again hats, and Republican leadership punctuated President Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday in Phoenix, Arizona, for conservative youth.
The rally — the president’s second since the COVID-19 flu outbreak — began with Donald Trump Jr. lauding his father’s “tough” stance on China and taking issue with Black Lives Matter protests.
“That’s why it’s so awesome for me to see young people like yourselves in this room here and engaged,” Trump Jr. said. “They are doing what they can to silence you. They are doing what they can to oppress you. They are doing what they can to intimidate you,” Trump Jr. said to the hall of students at the Dream City Church.
“But you don’t have to be. You can go out there and do what’s right, you can go out there and fight for your country,” he said.
Tuesday’s event was assembled for members of Students for Trump (S4T) and its parent organization, Turning Point Action.
The youth vote is expected to make a major impact on the 2020 election. That voting bloc — a combination of millennials and members of Generation Z — has outgrown the older baby boomer generation in potential votes.
The crowd was estimated at 3,000 young conservatives who are part of S4T and supporters of the president’s reelection. Broadcast and streamed online, the rally’s only camera shot focused on who was talking on stage.
Rep. Matt Gaetz just spoke to a packed house at a "Students For Trump" event in Phoenix. I spy 4 people with masks on from crowd shot. Arizona health officials say ICU beds, ventilators, impatient beds, cases all just reached new daily highs. pic.twitter.com/hERQa1URBy
— Eric Shackelford (@ABC7Shack) June 23, 2020
Students for Trump — founded in 2015 by Campbell University students Ryan Fournier and John Lambert — aims to reelect Trump in 2020 and is and “fueled by freedom,” according to S4T’s website.
In July 2019, the movement was acquired by Turning Point Action, a nonprofit that espouses conservative positions. Later in 2019, S4T became “the official chapter-based, pro-Trump student group on hundreds of college and high school campuses across America,” according to its website.
There are 47 million 18- to 29-year-olds who are eligible to vote in the 2020 election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civil Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Fifteen million of them have turned 18 since the last presidential election, according to CIRCLE.
“You guys keep doing what you’re doing, stay engaged, stay in the fight,” Trump Jr. said near the end of his speech. “Get out there, do it, keep fighting, I promise you we’ll be back in the action again.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also spoke.
“Now is the time for courage, now is the time for all of our young students out there to fight like we have never fought before,” Kirk said. “Now is time for us to say … that our country is the greatest country to ever exist in the history of the world.”
He introduced Trump as “God Bless the USA” played in the background. As the song ended, the crowd chanted “USA” in a cheer to the president.
“I’m thrilled to be in Arizona with thousands of patriotic young Americans who stand up tall for America and refuse to kneel to the radical left,” said Trump.
Trump reminded the young crowd to vote for him in November and to speak up against mail-in ballots.
Jack Bishop, a student from North Carolina State University, took to the podium to express his fears about “conservative censorship,” which he said was “happening all across the country, all the time.”
“It’s our duty as conservatives to stand up and to fight for our rights and to fight for our nation and to fight for our guy,” Bishop said. “We’re going to win this election, we’re going to take back the House, we’re going to keep the Senate and we’re going to get four more years of the best presidency of my lifetime.”
Those watching the rally online expressed their comments in sidebars and on social media.
“Honored to watch the next generation of American patriots,” tweeted Twitter user @Tiffany_Shedd. “I am awed by your courage, convictions, and love of America. @TrumpStudents #GodBlessAmerica”
Honored to watch the next generation of American patriots. I am awed by your courage, convictions, and love of America. @TrumpStudents #GodBlessAmerica pic.twitter.com/LvtzRfaUE5
— Tiffany Shedd (@Tiffany_Shedd) June 24, 2020
“Growing up, my idols were either Ronald Reagan, or George H.W. Bush, Teddy Roosevelt, or F.D.R. … as these kind of all embodied the ideas of statesmanship and what I understood a president to act like,” said self-described conservative Preston Brailer in a video for @Republican Voters Against Trump. “They didn’t allow their egos to get in the way of creating a more perfect union,” he said, describing the leaders he admired.
“President Trump goes counter to pretty much everything I just said. … He generally, from what I gather, serves to sow division at every turn in order to galvanize his base. I personally don’t think our country will be at its best, nor do I think it will be allowed to heal and kind of recover from the political discourse and division that we suffer from all too often today.”
Young conservative @PrestonBrailer (CA) knows Donald Trump is not fit to be president
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@RVAT2020) June 24, 2020
"I don't think our country will be at its best, nor do I think it will be allowed to heal ... from the ... division that we suffer from ... until President Trump is out of office ..." pic.twitter.com/drKc2ZETkK
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- By VOA News
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Pro-Palestinian protests spread on US university campuses
U.S. university campuses are seeing pro-Palestinian protests daily. Students are demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to flow into the territory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
US police clash with students who demand colleges cut financial ties to Israel
Police tangled with student demonstrators in the U.S. states of Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
At the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — clashed with protesters, pushing them off the campus lawn and at one point sending some tumbling into the street. At least 20 demonstrators were taken into custody at the request of university officials and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students, the station confirmed. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff who bandaged his head.
At the University of Southern California, police got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents, removing several before falling back. At the northern end of California, students were barricaded inside a building for a third day at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.
Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables. That didn't stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday following a rally against the university's suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its monthslong conflict. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day. The situation there remained tense, with campus officials saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.
On a visit to campus, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign "if she cannot bring order to this chaos."
"If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard," he said.
Shafik had set a midnight Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an encampment, but the school extended negotiations, saying it was making "important progress."
On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. "Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will," said Ben Chang, Columbia's vice president for communications.
Columbia graduate student Omer Lubaton Granot, who put up pictures of Israeli hostages near the encampment, said he wanted to remind people that there were more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.
"I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights," he said. "I don't think they have one word to say about the fact that people their age, that were kidnapped from their homes or from a music festival in Israel, are held by a terror organization."
Harvard law student Tala Alfoqaha, who is Palestinian, said she and other protesters want more transparency from the university.
"My hope is that the Harvard administration listens to what its students have been asking for all year, which is divestment, disclosure and dropping any sort of charges against students," she said.
Columbia encampment inspires others
Police first tried to clear the encampment at Columbia last week, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. The move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar encampments and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
On Wednesday about 60 tents remained at the Columbia encampment, which appeared calm. Security remained tight around campus, with identification required and police setting up metal barricades.
Columbia said it had agreed with protest representatives that only students would remain at the encampment and they would make it welcoming, banning discriminatory or harassing language.
On the University of Minnesota campus, a few dozen students rallied a day after nine protesters were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was among the demonstrators arrested at Columbia last week, attended a protest later in the day.
A group of more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter Wednesday calling on the university's president and other administrators to drop any charges and to allow future encampments without what they described as police retaliation.
They wrote that they were "horrified that the administration would permit such a clear violation of our students' rights to freely speak out against genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine."
Netanyahu encourages police response
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses in a video statement released Wednesday, saying the response of several university presidents has been "shameful" and calling on state, local and federal officials to intervene.
Students at some protests were hiding their identities and declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution. At an encampment of about 40 tents at the heart of the University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor, almost every student wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered.
The upwelling of demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with free speech rights. Many long tolerated the protests, but are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline, citing safety concerns.
At New York University this week, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. More than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
Columbia University demonstrators in talks with administration officials
Officials at Columbia University were continuing talks Wednesday with student demonstrators from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as the protest reaches a full week.
At 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, university President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik sent an email to the Columbia community setting a midnight deadline for an agreement to be reached about dismantling the encampment and dispersing the protesters.
“I very much hope these discussions are successful,” she wrote. “If they are not, we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus so that students can complete the term and graduate.”
As midnight passed, Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted a statement on X saying, “We refuse to concede to cowardly threats and blatant intimidation by university administration. We will continue to peacefully protest.”
The statement also said the university had threatened to call the National Guard. But after visiting the university earlier in the week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she had no plans to deploy the National Guard.
As midnight approached on Tuesday, a student organizer announced that the deadline had been extended to 8 a.m. Wednesday.
At 4:09 a.m., the Office of the President sent an email saying the discussion deadline would be extended for 48 hours, given the constructive dialogue, and the university would report back on progress.
The email announced that leaders of the student encampment had agreed to remove a significant number of tents, get non-Columbia affiliates to leave the encampment and comply with New York Fire Department requirements. They also agreed to ensure that the encampment is “welcome to all” and to prohibit “discriminatory or harassing language.”
This development comes nearly a week after more than 100 students were arrested at the school on April 18, after Shafik authorized police to clear away protesters. Some of the students received suspension notices from the school.
Columbia’s action prompted an onslaught of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other universities and responses from faculty and politicians.
Students at other campuses, such as Yale, Stanford and New York University, have also rallied around the Palestinian cause, calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza. Many also have put up tent encampments on their campuses. About 150 students and faculty were arrested at New York University Monday night.
Columbia also announced Tuesday morning that classes on the Morningside main campus, where the protests are taking place, will be offered in a hybrid format for the remainder of the spring semester. The last day of classes is April 29.
- By VOA News
Paper: International students faced extra pandemic challenges
Astrobites, which describes itself as "a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy since 2010," focuses on the challenges international students faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It examines a paper published in the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education entitled The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students in a Public University in the United States: Academic and Non-academic Challenges.
Read the Astrobites article here. (April 2024)
