I feel that the Daily Illini sanitized the “Take Back the Union” protest to an unacceptable level. By looking at the event listing on Facebook (http://uillinois.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6056816095), you can see that the group had a much more radical agenda than reported in your story. Firstly, the protest was originally supposed to be held in the Union specifically to disrupt student activities, which is not allowed. The group was protesting against “starting an “Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund””; against recruiting by companies who “extract resources from … the third world”; and most shockingly against “not providing safe spaces … for undocumented students and workers.”

That’s right; this protest was calling for the University to protect illegal aliens on campus. None of these goals were reported in your story. Finally, the group organizer calls for the ‘decolonization’ of the University. While she does not define ‘decolonization,’ one only needs to look at the event in a historical context: the expulsion, sometimes by force, of European capitalists. This is truly a shocking demand upon our university. While you portrayed these people as good-hearted, socially conscious individuals, you would have discovered by digging deeper that they have a much more radical and nefarious political agenda.