The campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has experienced some division over recent days. On April 5, some students wrote "Trump 2016" and a picture of a wall with sidewalk chalk in the middle of campus in the middle of the night. When the rest of campus got up for class the next day, some people were nothappy with the message.
Students on Twitter were in outrage and called the chalk messages "offensive and racist." They claim anyone associated with Donald Trump to be a racist person. People angrily poured water to wash the chalk away and replaced the Trump chalk with "Black UTC supports unity." Students using the hashtag #BlackUTC decided to meet in the center of campus the next day to show their desire for unity and diversity.
Word came out that the person who wrote the GOP candidate's name was a student in Student Government Association because she posted about it on Twitter. She was a Senator for the coalition that named themselves "EMPOWER UTC" and they had just won the election that day. The newly elected president of SGA asked the student to resign the coalition and consider declining a position in next year's senate.
This formed a clear division for the other half of the students who believed "kicking someone out" of SGA for her beliefs was morally and constitutionally unjust. However, it was blown up a little for she was just asked to resign the coalition, not forced out of SGA. People voiced that whether they were a fan of Donald Trump or not, they were not happy with the decision.
The coalition wrote, "We realize that her values do not line up with the pillars we've established ourselves on. We do not support bigotry or hatred or the messages spread by Donald Trump's ignorance. We do not support the mission of those who wish to spread that ignorance. We do not support those who bask in that ignorance ... We will not represent those who support the oppression of others."
This message has strong words and accusations that EMPOWER UTC realized a little too late, for this message got around quickly. The SGA President came out with an explanation on Twitter apologizing for the first message that someone in his coalition wrote. He says, "I fully support every individual's First Amendment Rights, and the senator-elect has every right to support any candidate of her choosing... The language of the original statement was created in the heat of the moment... Giving all students voices, fostering respectful and civil conversations, and learning to disagree agreeably are important to me and to the EMPOWER UTC coalition. We do not support censorship or restriction of free speech, although we need to do a better job showing this."
Over the next couple days after the first chalking, groups of students who support Trump wrote more messages on the sidewalks. Students who dislike Trump continued to pour water on the chalk during the day.
The reason the group of students wrote in chalk the first day had to do with the popular Twitter account called "Old Row." Students at Emory University wrote Trump's name in chalk to campaign on the campus, so the account got the idea to have a contest for students to do the same on their own campuses. Select students from over one hundred campuses across America, including UTC, participated all using the hashtag #TheChalkening.
The Senator at UTC ended up being on the local then national news discussing what happened. She explains her views on the situation and reveals that she does not plan on resigning from the coalition.
Now, six days later, the SGA President has announced his own resignation. His exact message is below.
Most can agree that both sides of the situation were blown out of proportion. Whether you agree with one side or the other is up for you to decide. However, if achieving unity is the goal in this, students on both sides should refrain from oppressing their peers in order for everyone to feel free to express their opinions without offense from those who have opposing views.
