Over 100 UCF students rally to demand meeting with President Cartwright
Orlando, FL – On January 14, University of Central Florida (UCF) Students for a Democratic Society rallied more than 100 students to march on Millican Hall, the campus’s primary administrative building, to demand UCF President Alexander Cartwright meet with student leaders about making UCF a sanctuary campus.
Students targeted President Cartwright with chants of “Cartwright, Cartwright you can’t hide. You’re supporting ICE’s crimes” and “Come out Cartwright.” Alongside UCF SDS were UCF Young Democratic Socialists of America, UCF Sunrise, and United Faculty of Florida.
Last semester, UCF SDS marched on Millican Hall to deliver a petition and letters from students and faculty demanding UCF become a sanctuary campus, ending the 287(g) agreement which allows UCF PD to act on behalf of ICE and receive training and funding from ICE. Since then, the administration has been completely quiet, and with the recent ICE murder in Minneapolis, that silence has become deafening.
Mason Rhody of UCF Sunrise stated, “Tens of thousands [have been detained or deported] from Florida alone. University administration refuses to say how many of those people came from UCF. The lack of information and transparency only fuels further fears.”
Pablo Valenzuela of UCF YDSA spoke in solidarity with the protesters in Minneapolis stating, “We cannot tell a people to remain peaceful while they are gunned down in the streets and their children are left orphaned.”
The final speaker was Abigail Savarese of UCF SDS, who told the crowd, “We have presented them with an opportunity for a resolution. The longer they procrastinate, the more they fail to abide by their own stated values. The students and faculty of UCF know how immoral the actions of ICE are, which is why the university must make the right decision and agree to a meeting with Cartwright. As long as there will be people in the UCF community, there will be those who won’t stand for UCF’s complacency: complacency that we know puts students in harm's way. We will continue to show up for our community, and protest ICE.”
At the end of the speeches, the students marched back to the front of the student union with little resistance. Many students showed their support during the march by joining in chants, coming out of the library, and walking away from UCF’s Market Day to see that the students are rising up, and are demanding ICE get off of their campus.