Arthur Perez

On Tuesday March 4, 2014 I participated in the March Forth activities that were held on campus. These activities started out in the Free Speech Area on campus here at Fresno State. The activities included different groups that were represented by students speaking about multiple issues that included, animal rights, education, woman’s issues and sexual violence to name a few. There were also tables set up across from the Free Speech Area where students representing these different groups were informing others about their cause and why they feel it is an important cause.

The highlight of the activities was the protest march around campus, as each group that was out there encouraged students to make a sign for a cause that they felt needed to brought to other people’s attention, as we walked around campus in a peaceful protest. This protest started out in front of the Free Speech Area then Dr. Kubal lead the large group of students that had come out to partake in the March Fourth protest across campus. Since this protest was taking place outside there was a lot of room to move around although we mostly stayed together as within the sidewalks that we were marching down. As we marched through campus we passed the fountain on campus, and other students who were walking on campus. Most just stopped and smile then looked at our signs to try to read what exactly they had written on them. When we were walking along Shaw there were a lot of cars passing by and a few even honked, which got a loud cheer from the group of protestors.

The large group of protestors appeared like topically college students, everyone was dressed pretty casual, what you would usually expect to see on a college campus. Given the exemption of Dr. Jendian everyone was dressed for the warm weather on this Tuesday afternoon. There appeared to be a good mixture of gender, races, everyone also appeared to be about the same age, although I also did notice some individuals who may have been outside of the majority.

The activities set around the March Fourth protest started around Noon and the march itself did not start until 2pm in between this time students gathered in the Free Speech Area. While waiting for the march to began I noticed a lot of students from my class or other sociology classes that I’ve had in the past socializing and gathering information on the causes that were present. Once the march started everyone began following each other, as we were lead by Dr. Kubal around campus. As we walked on campus we held our signs high and some people even shouted out statistics for their cause. I overheard different quotes like “love your pet don’t hit them” or “men can prevent rape too” as I was walking close to a group of individuals who were concerned with sexual violence and animal rights.

We were told the march was going to be about 35mins, the actual march went a little bit longer but it seemed not to be a concern to most of the protestors as they made their through campus. The protest came to an end once we made our way back to the Free Speech Area as the students place their signs in a pile on the stage, then made their way of to sign in and then went on their way with the rest of their day.

The goal of this march was to bring attention to a number of issues in a peaceful manner here on the campus of Fresno State. This was done by setting up tables in the Free Speech Area where students could walk up to and receive information about a subject. Also each group gave a short speech on their topic and described what exactly their issue was and where you could get more information on it. For those students do not come near the Free Speech area were given the chance to be exposed to the issues that these individuals feel that need to be addressed as the march was throughout campus. The only thing that could of gotten in the way of these protestors not reaching their goal of raising attention to these issues are if they were not taking the protest serious as some students were. There was a group of individuals behind me and they could be heard yelling out things that had nothing to do with our march.

Being that this was the first time partaking in a march it was a very interesting feeling. At first I did not know what to expect to feel going into this march but it ended up being a very cool experience. After march was over I felt well, when I heard a group of my friends asking if the saw the group of people walking around with signs and then went onto inform them the meaning behind the march and why it was talking place.