On the morning of March 1, chatter gradually rose on the Pentacrest as students dressed in Hawkeye apparel trickled in front of the Old Capitol Museum to protest recent decisions made by the University of Iowa and the state of Iowa.

Those decisions included the elimination of the school’s Living Learning Communities, or LLCs, the targeting of resources that benefit students from marginalized communities, and the attack on free speech by Iowa House File 2077. Despite the seriousness of the subjects that each student spoke about, smiles and laughter could still be seen and heard from protestors as they erupted into chants and dance.

The UI’s LLCs are residence hall communities where students who share similar interests or identities have the opportunity to live together and take courses together. While the UI has LLCs based on academic interests, the impacted LLCs include Unidos, Young Gifted and Black, and All In. These are all identity-based LLCs.

As time passed, the crowd of protesters expanded to more than 100 people, including faculty, staff, and community members from Iowa City and beyond. Their message was clear from the pamphlets passed among protesters which announced, “We are Hawkeyes, too.”

The protest was hosted by the newly formed Latino Student Union and the Black Student Union, who, weeks before the protest began, planned who would speak at the protest, where it would take place, and how they could reach the widest audience.

Information about the protest circulated amongst students and local community members through Instagram posts and email, including student organizations such as Queer Trans People of Color, the Cross-Cultural Student Coalition, Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, Unidos, Young Gifted and Black, All In, Multicultural Greek Council, and Undergraduate Student Government.

“One of the things I strongly advocated for throughout this process is that I want to be unified across all the multiple student organizations,” Daniela Pintor-Mendoza, the president of the Latino Student Union, said at a poster-making event that took place in preparation for the protest. “What I’m trying to do here is unify all of us regardless of whatever your mission is [because] at the end of the day, we’re all still affected.”

Unified, people of all ages and from differing cultural backgrounds gathered in support of the protest as Anahi Zamora and Ellyss Davis, who lives in the Young Gifted and Black LLC, guided the crowd, chanting, “United, never divided.”

Following introductions from Zamora and Davis, speakers from each affected LLC including residents and resident assistants were invited one-by-one to speak to the crowd.

“To take away these communities is to strip us of every space that empowers us [and] to tell us that our identity, our struggles, are not worthy of investment or care,” Mary Oriho, the resident assistant for the Young Gifted and Black LLC, said. “This decision is not about encouraging diversity. It’s about erasure. It’s about forcing marginalized students to assimilate to the surrounding white spaces that were never built with us in mind in the first place.”

Oriho said in her speech LLCs are an important aspect of community-building, especially for students who belong to marginalized communities, something the university acknowledges and promotes on its website advertising the LLCs available to students.

Melanie Flores, the resident assistant for the Unidos LLC, said in her speech that the LLCs also set students up for success by providing them with resources they otherwise may not have known were available.

“I’ve been told to not worry since I’m graduating soon, since I’m older, since it won’t really affect me, but it terrifies me for future generations because they won’t have the same resources that allow us to fly,” Flores said. “So, I ask the question again, to everyone making these decisions, why are you afraid of seeing us succeed?”

Speeches continued from students currently living in the affected LLCs, including Raul Gomez from Unidos, Ellyss Davis, Annabelle Ruhrer-Johnson, and Kalyn Grace Schmidt from All In.

The group spoke about what living in these LLCs has meant to them as a way of forming community and feeling safe on campus, and what the elimination of these programs means for all UI students who, even if not directly affected by the elimination of the LLCs, should be concerned about the message it sends.

“Iowa is a place for everyone,” Ruhrer-Johnson said. “If you are not affected now, you will be at some point in the future.”

During breaks between speeches, students learned to dance El Caballo Dorado and followed along to the Cha Cha Slide alongside participating in contests to see who could chant the loudest. Children ducked beneath protest signs as they played, and dogs barked excitedly at the crowd.

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As Pintor-Mendoza said, the goal was to unite, and these activities were a part of that unification.

Speeches continued from the president of the Multicultural Greek Council, Leah Takes, and Stella Gerlock from Gamma Rho Lambda, as well as from members of the Undergraduate Student Government, including Senator Estella Ruhrer-Johnson, and Vice President Brenda Ramirez.

Ramirez promised to use her role as vice president of USG to pressure the university to support all of its students, reminding the crowd the university belongs to the students who pay tuition and help fund the UI.

“Today, we are here not just to protest but to be clear that this is a fight that is far from over,” Ramirez said.

Lina-Maria Murillo offered final words of encouragement, recognizing the work the students had accomplished in organizing the protest and gathering at the Pentacrest and also emphasizing, like Ramirez, that more work will need to be done.

“They’re mad because you all have done it. You created those spaces, you did make your voices heard, you did teach each other your history,” Murillo said. “You did that, students did that. And you’re going to do it again!”

Nearing the end of the protest, a single bald eagle flew above the crowd, circling as chants of “We are Hawkeyes, too” echoed across the Pentacrest.

The crowd gathered at the steps of the Old Capital Museum for a final photograph, hundreds of students clustered together in solidarity with signs held high in their hands reading, “diversity makes a university,” “Kick Rocks Kim,” “silence is compliance,” and “Herky says: don’t erase our communities.”

“We will be stronger together than divided,” Pintor-Mendoza said in her concluding speech for the protest. “This is not the end of us. Be prepared. Be a member of your community because your community will support you. We will rely on you as well.”