The Seton Hall community has not been a stranger to the recent protests occurring on campus. Members of Concerned44, a coalition of students, have been conducted sit-ins for the past few days, and are continuing their peaceful demonstrations for the next week. Their demands include re-configuring Africana Studies into a department again, restructuring of the Title IX office, for the University to allocate appropriate funds for Black, Hispanic, Islamic, and Women's History months, and other demands. With all this student-led activism going on, it begs the question: how does one protest on campus?

Well, like many other college campuses, you need to fill out an application for it to get approved. This is controversial for many people, myself included, as a person shouldn't have to complete a protest application, as that kind of defeats the purpose. Unfortunately, it's more common than one thinks and it is a requirement on campus. That being said, I have never heard that an application to protest was denied before at Seton Hall. Hell, members of Concerned44 have been staging sleep-ins along with the sit-ins in President's Hall for the past couple of days with no word from the administration to stop their actions.

An important note to make is that this application process is very new to campus, starting August 21 of last year, to be exact. There are also these stipulations as detailed on the SHU website: "A student protest or other public demonstration is permitted so long as it is peaceful, non-obstructive and respectful of the University's Catholic mission." The key words here are "University's Catholic mission," as this phrase can be interpreted to prohibit demonstrations that may go against the policies of the Catholic Church such as pro-LGBTQ+ or pro-choice demonstrations. This should raise alarms as each application is weighted based on their stated intent as The Setonian reported.

Now, this shouldn't dampen any person's quest to demonstrate on campus. On the contrary, this policy and this week's events should motivate a person even further to rally behind social justice causes because demonstrations and protests are a form of communication to the masses. They let those around them and in power know that something is wrong and they are not ok with it. Protests enables change to occur and give marginalized voices the power they deserve. The bravery and confidence that the Concerned44 movement has shown has proven invaluable to our community as it enables substantive dialogue and solutions be made regarding diversity and inclusion.

So if you want to hold an LGBTQ+ rally out on the green, go for it! Want to protest tuition hikes? Go for that too! And if your application isn't approved, keep trying until it is because it matters that our voices be heard. Suffice to say, the campus environment is changing for the better and that's happening because of us. Since we help to pay for the University to operate day to day, it only makes sense that our thoughts are heard on important matters too.