Around 300 UCSB students, faculty, and community members marched Thursday at noon from Davidson Library to People’s Park in Isla Vista as a sequel to November’s Million Student March . The march demanded free tuition at public universities, student debt relief, university divestment from private prisons, and a $15 minimum wage on campus. Organized by a group of student leaders, this march was part of the national #MillionStudentMarch movement rallying for social change and responding to recent campus controversies.
As stated on the Facebook event, the march was organized “in an effort to reclaim UCSB’s campus after heinous, racist, sexist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and transphobic chalk statements led to an intensification of campus climate.” Late late month, statements like “Build a wall,” “Muhammad fucked children,” “Torture Muslims,” and others were chalked on campus, some outside of the Student Resource Building.
Reactions to these chalkings included an April 7 town hall meeting held to discuss expectations of campus community and free speech. In a campus-wide email, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn wrote, “The intolerance contained in these messages is inconsistent with our core values and our commitment to maintaining an inclusive and safe learning environment for every member of the UCSB community.”