Missouri State University students, others protest the war in Gaza

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) — Missouri State University student groups started a sit-in protest inside the Plaster Student Union.

Nine different student groups gathered to ask the university to disclose MSU’s investments and financials regarding student tuition and donations. The groups want the university to divest completely from companies that support the Israeli government.

They also asked the administration of Missouri State to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Students gathered inside the Plaster Student Center starting around 10 a.m. on Friday and planned to stay until 6 p.m.

And just like any point of view, there is a counterpoint, ensuring their voices were also heard.

“We want to bring awareness to that and show that we, as students at Missouri State and the greater Springfield Community, are not going to stand for this,” says James Forge with the Missouri State Palestine Coalition.

Throughout the day…more and more students joined in.

“So, it is very important for me to have a space like this where people can come support and talk to each other and open up their minds to ideas they haven’t thought about before,” says Duck Kindred, the Vice President of Bears Better Together.

Having a space for different viewpoints is important.

“I think that both sides have a right to demonstrate and to say what they believe,” says Sean Lay, a Missouri State Sophomore.

Outside the Plaster Student Center.

“There is definitely another side, and it needs to have a voice,” says Wade Nunnally, an Israel Supporter.

And give people a voice.

“And today we are here to make a stand for our friends,” says Lacy Nunnally, an Israel Supporter.

With both sides willing to listen.

“I hope they will find there is another viewpoint,” says Israel supporter Bob Wolff.

And show different viewpoints and gather on the same campus nonviolently.

“Across every campus, we are urging nonviolence. We are not going to be violent, and during that, you have to have dialogue,” says Forge.

And finding a way to remember, “We have to find a way to believe in each other. How can we even talk about genocide,” says Lacy Nunnally.

Throughout the day, the protests showed the community and university that their students and community are different.

“This knowing that we are going to do all the rules, we are promising we are going to stick the original plan of what we told them we are going to be doing. It shows they have trust in us, and that is important for the higher-up people in a college to have trust in their students,” says Kindred.

Missouri State officials declined an interview request but released a statement to KY3 regarding the sit-in.

“In light of recent campus protests around the country, Missouri State University is reaffirming its commitment to supporting an environment of free expression. The freedom to exchange views is essential to the mission of the university. Students and others are welcome to lawfully protest to make their voices heard.

At the same time, the university is focused on ensuring a safe campus where academic and administrative work can take place without disruptions. Policy violations and unlawful acts of harassment, intimidation, violence, or other types of criminal activity are not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

The student protest movement began on April 17 at Columbia University, where student protesters built an encampment to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after October 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.

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