Photos

New Marshall president leads campus Unity Walk

Herald-Dispatch photo by Sholten Singer President Jerry Gilbert, left, and Cedric Gathings, vice president for student affairs, lead students on a lap around campus during Marshall University’s 5th annual Unity Walk on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016, in Huntington, W.Va.
Herald-Dispatch photo by Sholten Singer
President Jerry Gilbert, left, and Cedric Gathings, vice president for student affairs, lead students on a lap around campus during Marshall University’s 5th annual Unity Walk on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016, in Huntington, W.Va.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — If these United States ever needed a show of unity, it’s now.

Even as tensions boil over in the world off-campus, students from all walks of life walked as one during Marshall University’s annual Unity Walk on Tuesday in Huntington.

Dozens of student organizations, representing every corner of the American melting pot, set aside ideologies and marched as one, both in unity as the “we” in “We Are Marshall” and in defiance to the divisions ripping through the nation.

 “To have an opportunity to do what’s exactly the opposite of what’s going on in various parts of the country really brings a lot of joy and positivity into the minds of students,” said Maurice Cooley, Marshall associate vice president for intercultural affairs.

Cooley likened the walk to an annual family reunion, adding that although students and their niche of choice may do their own thing for the majority of the year, the Unity Walk brings all of Marshall’s individual groups together, reminding them they’re all on the same team.

“The Unity Walk is one of those simple concepts that bring people together that develop friends and see that we have so much more in common,” Cooley said. “What you have different from me are really just the elements of what makes us stronger together.”

With racial tension its highest in a generation, the 2016 Unity Walk was a bit sweeter given the social climate, said Alexis Tyson, president of the university’s Black United Students. Tyson, a junior finance and economics major from Charleston, praised the university’s nipping at the outside world’s toxicity before it seeps on campus and taking proactive steps in reminding students that they’re all in this together.

“Despite what’s going on in the world, this is who we are here at Marshall,” Tyson said. “Small tensions turn into big tensions if you don’t address them while they’re small. They’ll get bigger and bigger.”

 Tyson, an African-American student, added she’s never personally had a racially charged negative experience while at Marshall.

“Marshall, I think, really cares, and that’s where that home atmosphere comes from,” Tyson said. “They really care about if you’re having a good experience as a student, and you’ve got to get along with everybody to have a good experience. (Marshall) is dedicated to that.”

As the students split to 3rd and 5th avenues from the Marshall Recreation Center to Old Main, Deena Dashan held a hand on the banner for the Muslim Students Association. Dashan, a sophomore pre-med student from Charleston, said opening your mind to other people doesn’t have to change who you are personally.

“You don’t have to believe them, but you can empathize with them and understand what other people are going through,” Dashan said. “It’s really important for people to come together at a time like this, especially when we have two people running for president who are dividing the country.”

Follow reporter Bishop Nash on Twitter @BishopNash.

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