Wrapping Up the Year
The 2025-2026 school year was one full of political activism and controversy, with multiple protests and antisemitic and racist displays spanning throughout the Spring and Fall semesters.
Of the several protests orchestrated, No Kings and Anti-ICE were among the largest turnouts, and some even had a counter-protest further down the road. Students from the university were among these displays, even taking it further and taking initiative to start their own on Prexies and outside of the Student Union Building.
Looking back at the past year, students who come from different backgrounds, study different majors, and live different lifestyles were able to come together and partake in the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and petition the government, connecting those who may not typically stop to talk on the street to find common ground and form another community.
Connections were made, and discussions commenced as a Friday debate club was formed by the No Cap Fund with the support of The Representation Foundation and Honor Coin La. The club began meeting this Spring Semester shortly after the most recent No Kings Protest reported on by the Branding Iron in late March, encouraging community members to civilly discuss political events and practice their freedom of speech.
With many efforts brought forward to stimulate political discussion in our community, many were united and brought together, joining one another to show their support or opposition to some of the most highlighted political events that occurred throughout the 25’-26’- academic year.
However, with the positive bridge that was formed by the community through advocating for civil political discourse, there also came several incidents involving antisemitic and racist statements on campus.
Among these were the display of Schutzstaffel SS bolts, swastikas and Ku Klux Klan members carved into pumpkins and displayed in the middle of Prexy’s Pasture, as well as the inclusion of antisemitic and homophobic remarks drawn onto the university’s libertarian group’s “Free Speech Ball” in Simpson Plaza.
The events later led to ASUW’s partnership with Hillel, the Middle Eastern and North African Cultural Club, and the United Multicultural Council to sponsor The Tolerance Project, a graphic art exhibition displayed in several buildings across campus.
“Both political violence in general and antisemitism specifically have increased significantly over the past few years,” the ASUW Student Government sent out in an email last Wednesday. “The Trump administration is particularly concerned, having issued Executive Orders directing universities to protect Jewish students.”
To wrap up the year, the Laramie community made many displays of support or disapproval of political events, organizations and people, showing that support doesn’t just remain online in the digital era, and that folks can come together for a common goal, and when some of these displays become insensitive, the community comes together again to condemn those actions.
