On Feb. 13, Dare To Struggle Dallas-Forth Worth staged a walkout at Chess Plaza to demand a public response from university administrators about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent unlawful kidnappings and killings. What was envisioned as a major demonstration instead had a turnout of only six attendees at its peak, exposing the difficulties organizers face coordinating protests at UTD.
Dare To Struggle’s DFW chapter had only existed for a couple weeks, planning the walkout at UTD as their first big event. Both of the chapter’s organizers, computer science alum Ankita Bantey and political science alum Aisha Qazi, had graduated from UTD and wanted to sow the seeds of a grassroots movement against ICE at their alma mater, in solidarity with the anti-ICE walkouts of hundreds of students across DFW high schools. Qazi said her conversations with UTD students encouraged the two to plan the walkout at UTD.
“From my personal experience being a student here [and] talking to students on campus … as an alum to ask about how they felt about ICE, [while] I felt maybe a reluctance to participate in the walkout, there was no shortage of rage and fear and anger towards ICE and this administration,” Qazi said. “And so, I had faith, and I still do, that this [walkout] could be a powerful tool for getting a movement off the ground.”
Fareeha Choudhury | Retrograde Staff
The organizers passed out flyers to students walking through the Plinth for a week beforehand and began aggressively advertising the event on social media two days before its scheduled date. Despite their efforts to promote the walkout, however, very few people ended up participating, with the protest ending early after Qazi and Bantey were the only protesters remaining an hour into the protest. Qazi blamed the low turnout on the apathetic culture of UTD.
“To look back on it retroactively, this is honestly what was probably expected, given [how] college students are generally, especially at a school [like] UTD, which is more STEM-oriented,” Qazi said. “I’m not surprised they’re a bit more apolitical, or that things [came] up. [There are] a lot of events happening on campus, [and] I can foresee some students wanting to attend social events in favor of something a bit more serious like this.”
Alexander De Jesus-Colon, political science graduate student and student activist, was present at the walkout and disagreed that the protest failed to launch due to UTD’s culture. Jesus-Colon instead placed the blame on the organizers for failing to give Comets a reason to care about the walkout.
“Yes, UTD is apathetic,” Jesus-Colon said. “Yes, UTD can be all about things, but UTD has a lot of spark. There’s been multiple protests over the years for different topics, from union organizing to Palestine and even wanting to prevent a rapist from being able to walk the graduation stage in 2018. And in each of those times, people have cared. The key thing at the end of the day is, you can protest. But first, you have to understand how you actually make a protest matter.”
Fareeha Choudhury | Retrograde Staff
Jesus-Colon identified three things that make up the anatomy of a successful protest at UTD: knowing your audience and reason for protesting, reaching out to other student organizations for support and marketing your event extensively. Jesus-Colon said that the ICE walkout failed at those things, and that the event came off as very strange as a result.
“So in [activist] circles … you at least hear something like, ‘The SJP is doing this,’ or ‘Hey, one of the queer organizations is hosting this event,’” Jesus-Colon said. “There was nothing about, ‘Oh, there’s a walkout going on Friday.’ The second red flag was [that] it’s a Friday, there’s not a lot of people on campus on Fridays. And then the [red flag] after that, what’s the call to action? What exactly will we gain from this, right? And so, if nobody’s heard about any of this, then it just feels like an aimless walk out of campus. And another strange aspect is [that] a high school walkout is very effective in a high school specifically because you have to go to high school, you have to attend your classes. In college, you can skip them. And then, the final [strange aspect] is ‘OK, we want to [hold the walkout] in the same place where people have been arrested.’ OK, that’s a choice. That makes you ask, do these people know what they’re getting into?”
Despite the hiccups in planning the walkout, Bantey said that there was a lot of engagement with passersby who they’re hoping now have an interest in Dare To Struggle.
“Some students weren’t able to stay for the whole walkout today, but they did take flyers to our meeting, so we’re hoping they show up and we keep in touch with them that way,” Bantey said. “Also, when we go out and talk to people, we get their contacts, and so we’re hoping to keep in touch that way, through contacts, and then also them showing up to our meetings and forums that are coming up.”
Fareeha Choudhury | Retrograde Staff
Dare To Struggle says it isn’t done organizing on campus despite the walkout’s low turnout. Bantey and Qazi said that they are investigating more effective methods of organizing on campus, including supporting the founding of a UTD branch of Dare To Struggle. Bantey said she has hope for the future of the organization at UTD.
“I think I wouldn’t want to do a walkout again on campus,” Bantey said. “I feel like we should switch up our tactics, and [while] this was a good solidarity movement with the high schoolers that are walking out, there’s so much more to be done to fight the deportation machine, like fighting repression alongside other people who are protesting … [and] even though there wasn’t a high turnout for the walkout itself, I think we were successful in letting students know what we’re about and inviting them to fight repression alongside us, whether it’s at UTD or off-campus.”
Fareeha Choudhury | Retrograde Staff