Hold Augie Accountable Protest collection

On Monday 19 September 2016, sidewalks and steps around the Augustana College campus were chalked with political statements largely connected to the Donald Trump campaign of the 2016 presidential election. The messages were eventually determined to have been chalked by members of Augustana's College Republicans. These statements were regarded by many members of the campus community to constitute hate speech. Some of the statements chalked included "Build the Wall," "Legal Immigrants for Trump," "Hillary for Prison," "The West is the Best," and "Feminism is Cancer." In response to the chalking incident, Augustana administrators established a free expression zone on the sidewalk of the quad between the Olin Center and Hanson Hall of Science. The space was designed to be an officially sanctioned area for students to record political messages, personal viewpoints, and observations in chalk. The chalking incident and creation of the free expression zone received local and national news attention.

In response to the chalking incident, several Augustana community members (primarily associated with multicultural student groups, including Latinx Unidos, Muslim Student Association, the Black Student Union, and Interfaith Understanding) organized a protest on Homecoming weekend. In the weeks leading up to the protest, slips of paper containing quoted statements by Augustana administrators related to diversity and inclusion, which incorporated social media hashtags such as #HoldPrezBahlsAccountable and #HoldCampbellAccountable, were anonymously distributed throughout campus. At 10:15 AM on Saturday 1 October 2016, participants marched from Lincoln Park in Rock Island, Illinois, to Augustana's lower quad and back again, afterwards holding a rally in Lincoln Park. In addition to students, the march was attended by faculty members and representatives of the Rock Island NAACP and Moline LULAC. While marching, students chanted "hate speech isn't free speech" and "whose home is it?" According to a press release issued by event organizers, the stated purpose of the march was to "hold the Administration of Augustana College accountable for not living up to their promise of making Augustana an inclusive community for students of color and other marginalized students." At the rally, speeches were given by Evan Marzahn and Hannah Griggs. Following the rally, about fourteen students staged an additional protest before the start of the Elmhurst and Augustana Homecoming football game at Lindberg Stadium, in which participants kneeled or remained seated during the playing of the National Anthem in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality. This form of protest had been popularized by San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick earlier that season.

Reactions to the protest were mixed. Participants in the march reported incidents of harassment and hate speech by white alumni as the protesters moved through the crowds gathered for Homecoming events on the quad. Among these, one participant reported a white alumnus shouting "Most of them are candidates for deportation!", and another reported being spat at and receiving racist taunts from a group of white alumni. In the wake of the protest, Augustana's Student Government Association launched a diversity campaign called "It's On Us" with the goal of encouraging conversations about issues of diversity, inclusion, and free expression on campus. President Steve Bahls also announced amendments to Augustana's strategic plan, Augustana 2020, emphasizing a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity. The week after the protest, students, faculty, and alumni met with Bahls, Provost Pareena Lawrence, and Dean of Students Evelyn Campbell to discuss the campus environment for students of color. As of January 2017, discussions surrounding issues of inclusion, diversity, free expression, and responses to the 2016 presidential election continue to be held regularly on Augustana's campus.