Recent rhetoric from President Donald Trump about protesting is causing caution – and concern – about the right to free expression among MU students.
Trump posted on Truth Social last week that he would revoke all federal funding from universities that allow “illegal” protesting and imprison or expel student protestors who are breaking the law. The grounds for what the president considers “illegal” is unclear.
Piper Molins is an MU student and co-president of the MU Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She organized a peaceful protest on Feb. 17, rallying against the Trump Administration’s mass deportation policies. Molins said Trump’s post generated fear among MU student activists, especially within the Latino community.
“I remember when we were organizing the unity rally against mass deportation, there was a lot of talk within the Latino student orgs of, ‘Is this going to be something that gets our recognized student organization status revoked?’” Molins said. “Can they restrict the funding that we have access to based on our participation in something like this?”
In response to the social media post, Molins created a free speech and expression guide, outlining the procedures and policies of protesting on campus.
Molins said international students were particularly hesitant to participate in protests in fear of their visas being revoked.
This phenomenon – where people refrain from expressing themselves out of fear – is known as a chilling effect.
MU student Sarah Hayes led a peaceful protest over federal agency cuts on March 10. She said Trump’s post made her nervous because she was unsure how realistic the demands were.
“It definitely did put a little bit of that fear in, and also the fear that something is questioning your right to assembly and your right to speech, which is something that is illegal to infringe upon,” Hayes said.
Thirteen people participated in the protest. Hayes believes Trump’s Truth Social post was at least one cause for the low turnout.
Federal funding of Columbia University was cut by the Trump administration on Tuesday after the university withheld the names of student activists.
MU declined to comment on how Trump’s remarks will impact how the university will treat protests on its campus. But potential federal funding cuts for MU could be detrimental to research, as the National Institute of Health funded $98 million of MU research in 2024.
