Tatiana Grace Bolen (far left), Virginia Capps (center) and Essence Smith (far right) were

three of the protesters from the INCITES group protesting for inclusion and equality at Emory
& Henry College.

Protesting: Calling Out College

Campuses
By, McFarland Murph
Recently I have seen protest occur on some occasions specifically being at my
School Emory & Henry College. I always wondered when watching this protest first
hand whether or not protesting helps certain issues or hurt them in the end.
Sometimes I would say its pointless, whereas in some circumstances its really
beneficial. In order to look further into protesting and its impact I looked at this
previous protest that took place at my school and some of the dynamics of
protesting and why people practice it.
On February 3, 2016, a group of students stood on the Wiley Hall steps protesting
against unfairness at Emory & Henry College. At the time I was standing in front of
the steps taking notes of what was going on for a news story I had to do for class.
As I stood in front of the steps the group of protesters began chanting Deeds not
Words to the crowd in front of them. After about three to five minutes of chanting
the group began explaining their issues and talking about the unfairness that was
occurring at the College. Some of the issues they cited were racist derogatory terms

used by teachers, racial bias, homophobia and religious bias as well. While
explaining these issues the group of protesters were extremely emotional some of
them even crying as they talked about their problems through the microphone. This
protest became so big that the local media came and covered the protest.
One of the reasons why I protested was because several of my friends and people I
didnt know that I talked to went to the administration with their stories to seek
closure and to find justice for some of the discriminations they experienced here
and were eventually told that there was nothing that can be done about it, says
Ana Rampy. Rampy a student at Emory & Henry College was one of the protesters
who spoke about her experiences of unfairness at the campus of Emory & Henry
College. Rampy continued on by saying another reason for her speaking at the
protest was that she experienced some micro aggressive behaviors and comments
towards her ethnicity and her sexuality. Ana concluded saying that these were the
two reasons that she decided to protest last semester.
Hearing about these issues at my school really surprised me, but at the same time it
didnt because of the fact that Emory & Henry was a majority white school and
stuck to a lot of old traditional views that didnt sit well with some students. Looking
back at this protest really showed me how impactful protest can be and how it can
change the face of a College campus.
I think protests are necessary especially in college, says Essence Smith a senior at
Emory & Henry College who led the protest that took place last semester. Essence
along with the other protesters stood on the steps of Wiley Hall protesting against
the inequalities on the Campus. Essence continued talking about protesting on
college campuses saying that, protesting is important because its a way that a lot
of people can get together and share their opinion all in one. Like one voice it can
go a long way, but multiple voices in a protest or in a peaceful protest at that can
get a lot of attention.
When reading a blog from The London School Of Economics and Political Science
titled, People protest for many reasons, yet we dont know how effective protests
are. It talks about some of the factors behind protest with one being grievances
which plays a big role in protesting. The blog highlights certain factors that go along
with grievances such as illegitimate inequalities, feelings of relative deprivation,
feelings of injustice, moral indignation about some state of affairs, a suddenly
imposed grievance and more. The blog also mentions that other factors such as
comparing your situation to someone elses and feeling a part of a group that a
person sees as deprived. After reading about their ideas on the basis of protesting
and how it begins, I feel like a lot of recent protest have resembled some of the
actions theyve just mentioned and explains a lot about the actions of people who
protest. The London School Of Economics and Political Science.

One of the other members of the protest that day was Emory & Henry student Kelly
Kirby. Kirby stated that, protesting is important because its a way that a lot of
people can get together and share their opinion all in one. [For instance] one voice
can go a long way, but multiple voices in a protest or in a peaceful protest at that
can get a lot of attention. Kirby went on describing the purpose for the protest that
day saying that he and the group thought it was important to bring out diversity on
Emory & Henrys campus and also the Southwest Virginia community as well. He
also said that protesting is important to him because it gives him self-confidence,
having a freedom of speech and being involved so that he knows that hes not the
only one being heard. When it came to the protest meeting expectations he said
that, It was successful to a degree, but there are always some issues that can be
eliminated or improved.
Other protests like these have occurred not only on campuses in Virginia, but
around the nation as well. Such protest have occurred at Missouri University when a
group of minority students stopped in the middle of a homecoming parade blocking
off the President of the University making claims against unfairness at the school.
The protest became so big that the Missouri Tigers football team refused to play
until the President resigned which he officially did not too long after the protest
began. Then recently a protest occurred at East Tennessee State University where
students protested against the racial injustice that was going on in America. The
protest got out of hand when a man dressed up in a Gorilla costume with a noose
around his neck, the police immediately arrested the man and the incident was
resolved. Protests like these are examples of how protests are affecting colleges
throughout the country.
Ive always said that if a college is a first rate university thats deserving of the
respect of not only the people who go there, but the people that know about it (The
general public), then a great college needs to be able to be ready for protest and
listen to them from time to time, says Emory & Henry College President Jake
Schrum. Schrum was in Washington D.C. during the protest taking care of the Pell
Grants that the students needed to go to school. Schrum said when he heard about
the protest at Emory he immediately took the first plane back. Schrum continued
saying that, At Emory & Henry I myself probably would not have chosen to protest
on the steps of Wiley Hall without coming to me and saying were really concerned
about this you know what can you do about it. You know it seemed like we went to
the protest first. Schrum felt like the protesters should have spoken to him about
their problems before they made the protest on the steps of Wiley Hall. Despite the
group of protesters not speaking to him first Schrum expressed his feelings about
the impact of the protest saying that, My feeling here is that if one person feels
uncomfortable the first thing I remind myself is they applied to go to school here,
we accepted them, there a part of our community. I dont care what race they are,
what their religion is, their a part of our community.

Protest on college campuses are calling out the issues with Universities throughout
this country. As this country continues to evolve and as millennials learn more about
society students and people in general seem to develop their own beliefs and stand
up for them if challenged. Whether or not protest on college campuses will continue
has yet to be determined, but the one thing that Ive learned is that they have a
major impact on college campuses in the United States of America.

Research Summaries

Personal:
Emory & Henry College President Jake Schrum
The reason why I chose to interview President Schrum for this feature story was to
get a look at the impact that the protest had on the campus and no one would know
better of how it impacted the campus better than the President of the College
himself. I think I can use a lot of his thoughts and opinions on the protest and how
he felt about it overall. Looking at how President Schrum reaction to the protest
shows how protest affect Emory & Henry College and other colleges as well.

Ana Rampy
Ana Rampy was one of the members of the INCITES group that led the protest on
the Wiley Hall steps last semester. She also was one of the members who spoke
about the unfairness that was going on at the college. Hearing Anas thoughts and
viewpoints gives people a glimpse of what protesters feel when protesting and what
the overall purpose if protesting is. Understanding the perspective from a protester
is really important because it gives the reader an in-depth look at the mindset of
people who protest.

Essence Smith

Essence Smith was the leader of the INCITES group that protested on the steps of
Wiley Hall last semester. Smith was one of the main organizers of the protest and
one of the founding members as well. Smith also spoke during the protest naming
off the deeds that they wanted the college wanted to fulfill. Hearing about Essences
perspective on the protest is critical to this story because the reader can
understand how and why this person founded the group and why they felt it was
important.

Kelly Kirby
Kelly Kirby was a member of the protest and the INCITES group who although didnt
say anything at the protest made his presence known holding up signs reading
deeds not words and being an overall avid member of the group. When speaking
with Kelly he described how he felt about protesting and why he felt it was
important to take a stance against the unfairness at Emory & Henry College.
Listening to Kelly speak about his experience really sheds light onto why protesters
protest and how it impacts him as a person.

The London School Of Economics and Political Science

This website looks at some of the factors behind protesting and how it impacts
people who protest. The website looks at psychological and emotional factors that
play a huge role in the mindset of protesters. This is important for my story because
it focuses on the factors that effect the minds of protesters, which I think is critical
for my story. I also think this information is useful because of the fact that it
continues to show the premise for what this mindset is based on and how certain
reactions to a specific group of people can ultimately effect the decisions protesters
make.
CNN.com
This article on CNNs website gives background on the incidents that led to the
resignation of Missouri President Tim Wolfe. Looking at the timeline of incidences at
the campus was very helpful it talked a lot about the build up to his resignation and
it shows the impact protesting has. Although I dont reference anything from this
article I wanted to make sure I had the right information before I put it in my story.

Website Link:
https://sites.google.com/a/ehc.edu/murphproteststory-com/

Supplemental Assignment:

Research

For my feature story I used personal resources to gain information. I thought this
would be better because I could show personal perspectives from people whove
protested and why they do it. The personal resources I used were Ana Rampy,
Essence Smith, Kelly Kirby the members of the INCITES group that protested on the
steps and President Jake Schrum. While I used mainly personal resources I also used
online resources as well. The on line sources came from the London School of
Economics and Political Science and CNN. The online resources gave me information
about people who protest and recent protest over the last couple of year.

Promoting

I decided that the best place to share this story is on Facebook and twitter. The
reason I want to use these social media mediums because people constantly stay
on Facebook and twitter and I feel like its the best place to add the story. I truly feel
that people will read this article on my Facebook and twitter page especially since it
has to do with Emory & Henry College. I also would try to reach out to the
Whitetopper as well to promote the story so people could read just in case if they
dont have a Facebook or twitter. Overall, I think this is the best way to promote the
article because thats what everybody pays attention to.

Design

The promoting for this article is on a google site. This is my first time really using
the google site after not successfully doing it the last time. I wanted to try this site
because the outline looked really formal and structured the format of my story well.

I tried to add a background as well to my story or a border, but for some reason the
site wouldnt allow me to do it, which is strange because it let me do it the last time.
I think that the design is decent and easy for readers to read as well.