Leading up to Election Day, students across Duke’s campus assembled en masse, hosting debate watch parties, tabling for candidates on the Bryan Center Plaza and helping students register to vote.
However, on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which concluded an unprecedented election cycle, many Duke students did not exhibit that same level of engagement.
“I really just didn't care that [the inauguration] was happening today,” junior Connor Biswell said, noting that he was watching “glancingly” in the Devil’s Krafthouse.
Junior Cortner Crumlish said that he found the level of engagement across campus to “really depend on the person” and that he had seen people falling on “both ends of the spectrum.” Crumlish shared that he decided to watch the inauguration ceremony “because it is a big moment in [the] nation’s history.”
“I'm optimistic seeing all the former presidents there and there being a lot of unity about this process,” he said. “I think that's a good, positive change from all the division that we saw during the electoral process.”
Although many students expressed their decision to not watch the inauguration, some chose to protest the event this morning on Abele Quad.
Between 6 and 7:30 a.m., students from the new Duke chapter of the Sunrise Movement hung a banner on Abele Quad reading “INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE,” quoting from Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 Letter From Birmingham Jail. Below it read “#OURTIMETORISE,” the organization’s signature slogan.
“We're pushing for a Green New Deal, pushing for climate, racial and economic justice and actually having the future that we deserve and the future that we need,” said sophomore Artivista Karlin, a member of Duke’s chapter.
On his first day in office, Trump signed over 100 executive orders, including one to pull the country out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Other orders included cracking down on immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization and gutting policies from the Biden administration protecting transgender Americans and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
“What worries me most honestly is the impact [Trump’s presidency] is going to have on marginalized communities across the nation,” Karlin said. “He already stated on Day 1 he's going to deport millions and millions of immigrants from all across the nation. He's going to attack trans[gender] and gender diverse people, attack women's rights to reproductive justice … [and] roll back EPA regulations.”
Biswell also noted that he was worried about some of Trump’s promises, including his plan to end birthright citizenship and impose a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
“Now more than ever … we must be there for each other — support each other, love each other, respect each other and be there for each other,” Karlin said of the upcoming four years.
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Nikhil Sethi is a Pratt first-year and a staff reporter for the news department.