WACO, Texas (KWTX) – While so many pro-Palestinian rallies have gotten out of hand, at Baylor Friday the focus was on peace and bringing awareness to the situation in Gaza.
Students gathered with faculty on the steps of the student union building to take a moment of silence and pray for the lives lost in the Middle East, and then held a panel to talk about the facts of the conflict overseas.
Seniors Brynn Eaton and Miah Dennis were involved in the organization of the event and say that this issue is important to advocate for, even right before finals.
Eaton says that “all of our studies are kind of like focused around this, this is what we have learned, is to like advocate and be active in confronting injustice, we felt like this was what was most important to us.”
After a prayer and a moment of silence, visitors were invited inside to learn all about the conflict and associate professor Nathan Alleman, a Baylor Associate Professor of Higher Education, says that education on tense issues can empower students to do more.
“It’s an educational experience, students need to learn to organize around issues that matters to them and draws people in rather than polarizing them and I think we saw a lot of that today.”
Dr. Lynn Tatum, a Senior Lecturer in the Honors College and was on the panel and has studied in the Middle East, says that events like these are crucial in shaping leaders of the next generation.
Tatum says that Baylor is “training them to be leaders in peace making, leaders in advancing the status of the world, fighting racism, fighting oppression, fighting injustice, fighting antisemitism, fighting islamophobia, so that’s just core to the Baylor mission.”
Students who organized the event say they are proud to continue the tradition of college students advocating for human rights.
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