When Katie Oran left for a semester abroad in London, Donald Trump was the president-elect. And, on his inauguration, she found herself protesting in a women’s march more than 3,500 miles away from Washington, D.C.

Oran, a junior at the time who was studying environmental communications at SUNY-ESF, had been thrust into activism during her freshman year in what she called a “tumultuous time” on campus.

What she found quickly during her freshman year, though, was a group of friends from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some of her friends were “Dreamers,” recipients of temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“After the election, to kind of see my friends and my community members scared about their status in this country, and worried about their family members, I kind of felt pulled toward them and others on campus to say, ‘We won’t stand there idly while their rights are being threatened,’” Oran said.

It’s been a year since student activists and community leaders organized large-scale protests to oppose the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal immigration policies and the initial implementation of a travel ban targeting majority-Muslim countries.

Since then, some of those prominent student activists say they’ve continued to advocate for social change.

Oran continued to focus on activist efforts after graduation, she said. She’s focused on helping homeless people in the Syracuse area through a group called, “We Rise Above the Streets.”

“I hope that other students who are involved are looking at their work with on-campus advocacy and think, ‘How can I bring my experience and my knowledge and my education to the community?’ and trying to get involved in that aspect instead of sticking to the university bubble,” she said.

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Priya Penner said she thinks everyone acts in their own self-interest. She said she’s noticed that people become activists as individuals, focusing on their own needs. As one gets more involved in activism, they understand the bigger thing they’re a part of.

“There’s a lot of people who are facing the same thing you’re facing, but a lot more people are facing worse things,” Penner said. “These are individuals that are inherently tied to you because of your identity as a disabled person.”

Despite this, Penner said she thinks student activism will grow in the future, with Trump’s administration as a driving force for activism.

“Unfortunately at this point, (we’re) reacting instead of being proactive,” she said. “The current political climate (is leading) us in a very different direction than we were planning on.”

Penner became involved in activism when she was 13 years old. Partially numb to the toll that advocacy could take, Penner said she was immediately drawn to the people she met while protesting.

Her mother, who had close ties to ADAPT, an organization working for disability rights, had taken Penner along with her to a protest, or “action,” as she described it, in Washington, D.C.

While Penner said she doesn’t remember most of that week in Washington, she was inspired by the people she met. Though protesters were yelling and blocking doors, they were still having fun, she said.

“Something just really clicked,” Penner said. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I didn’t know this was out here. I didn’t know what I was missing.’”

Courtesy of Priya Penner

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Julia Rome and Griffin Brooks were awake at 3 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2016, as Trump passed 270 electoral votes. They went to bed unsettled, and woke up the next morning with a sense of despair. Griffin said it felt weird sitting there that morning, doing nothing.

Rome remembered, at the time, Griffin wanted to organize something. Griffin and Rome spent the day after the election organizing a protest they called “P*ssy Grabs Back.”

“Our main goal was by no means to lead people of SU, but to instead find others with similar sentiments in order to feel some sort of togetherness,” Rome said in an email. “We were pretty shocked at how many people came together.”

More than 100 students marched through the streets on campus that night, holding signs reading “Love Trumps Hate,” and chanting.

Courtesy of Julia Rome

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Oran said she does have some regrets putting on-campus activism behind her. She said she wished there was more of an effort made to attract younger students into leadership roles on campus.

“We were juniors and seniors, and we kind of took the lead and other people followed,” she said. “We didn’t really create sustainable movement on campus.”

Dina Eldawy, who helped organize the “Rally for Refugees” on campus shortly after Trump ordered the original travel ban, said in an email she views activism on campus as a developing process, rather than a dying phase now that the first year of the Trump presidency has passed.

“I think student activism has evolved from organizing marches to more substantial policy planning, as independent groups have started group chats to brainstorm ideas on how to improve the campus environment,” she said.

Published on January 29, 2018 at 9:47 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326