Donald Trump looks into the audience during a campaign event at Lenoir-Rhyne U. this month. Some of the candidate’s supporters clashed with protesters outside a campus auditorium, but the private North Carolina institution regards the event as a success.Jeff Siner, Charlotte Observer, Getty Images
When Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, announced he would host a rally at Lenoir-Rhyne University, a small Lutheran institution in Hickory, N.C., campus officials braced for everything that has been known to come with a Trump event. The same day as that announcement, protesters at a Trump event at the University of Illinois at Chicago clashed with the candidate’s supporters, causing the speech to be canceled.
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Donald Trump looks into the audience during a campaign event at Lenoir-Rhyne U. this month. Some of the candidate’s supporters clashed with protesters outside a campus auditorium, but the private North Carolina institution regards the event as a success.Jeff Siner, Charlotte Observer, Getty Images
When Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, announced he would host a rally at Lenoir-Rhyne University, a small Lutheran institution in Hickory, N.C., campus officials braced for everything that has been known to come with a Trump event. The same day as that announcement, protesters at a Trump event at the University of Illinois at Chicago clashed with the candidate’s supporters, causing the speech to be canceled.
“This coming on the heels of Chicago … we were aware of it and prepared,” said Angela Reiter, the university’s director of marketing and communications, who added that the university has an open invitation to all presidential candidates. “We did our best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
When March 14 came, about 5,000 people from around the region showed up to attend, and not all of them were supporters. Six people were issued citations by the police, and by all accounts, the mood was tense.
To Lenoir-Rhyne’s president, Wayne B. Powell, the rally was a success. Mr. Powell praised the event as a victory for free speech, saying in a statement sent to The Chronicle, “I am so proud of the national leadership that has once again been demonstrated by Lenoir-Rhyne University. We sponsored a series of events: a political town hall featuring Donald Trump & [the governor of New Jersey,] Chris Christie, a public demonstration for those who oppose them, and a worship service to cleanse their hearts of anger and hatred.”
But those who protested Mr. Trump’s appearance say that the event was a disaster, that allowing the billionaire to speak endorsed his tactics of silencing dissent, and that the rally left a scar on the small university’s sense of community.
With a long campaign ahead, the episode at Lenoir-Rhyne holds lessons for colleges that might end up weighing whether to welcome Mr. Trump, who regularly inspires fierce protests from many in higher education and elsewhere.
‘Not an Exchange of Ideas’
Paul A. Custer, a history professor at Lenoir-Rhyne, organized the central protest of Mr. Trump. He said the protest began peacefully, with the protesters holding signs about 10 feet away from the line of people entering P.E. Monroe Auditorium to hear Mr. Trump speak. But when the doors closed and Trump supporters who were being turned away began to interact with the protesters, things started to get tense.
“It was very scary. A lot of racial slurs, a lot of vitriol, very, very, very angry, animated people,” said Mr. Custer, who added that he had to create a human chain with other protest leaders to keep the groups separated. “There is not an exchange of ideas. There is violence, screaming, and shouting.”
It was very scary. A lot of racial slurs, a lot of vitriol, very, very, very angry, animated people.
Mr. Custer said he often worried for his own safety, but was committed to trying to keep the protest peaceful. Despite his best efforts there were fights, with a “few bloody noses” and a moment in which one side threw a bottle at the other, Mr. Custer said.
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Still, Ms. Reiter said she is proud of how she and her colleagues organized the event, especially after witnessing the ugly events in Chicago over the weekend. She added that “a platform was given to those that wanted to protest,” and that the president “looks at the event as a win in both ways.”
One student who protested Mr. Trump, Jordan Makant, said the way the event was run stifled free speech altogether. U.S. Secret Service agents prevented certain people from entering the event, which meant there would be no dialogue. There was no town hall, Mr. Makant said, and the event was simply a rally. (According to Ms. Reiter, the university had no say in who was allowed into the event.)
What happened at the rally had a traumatic effect on members of the campus community who protested, they said. So much so that a small group of about 15 of them organized a healing and reflecting service over the weekend in an effort to decompress.
“We talked about why Monday had to happen and, more importantly, where we go from there,” Mr. Makant said. “It was very therapeutic.”
But they remain upset that the administration is celebrating an event they saw as harmful. “I see spaces where a fight did happen or where I was called a baby killer for my more-liberal views,” Mr. Makant said. “I remember that and I feel like … the ground itself seems a little scarred. And the community certainly was.”
