Butterflies in Held in Dignity community installation, located in Anderson Student Center. Monarch butterflies are the symbol for migrant communities. (Abigail Peters/The Crest) 
Students speak at the Prayer of Accompaniment and Solidarity to a crowd of students, faculty, and St. Thomas community members. (Abigail Peters/The Crest) 
Students passed out candles to be placed in a central display during the event. (Abigail Peters/The Crest) 
Students view the Held in Dignity installation after the event concludes. (Abigail Peters/The Crest)
The University of St. Thomas community joined in prayer Friday at the Anderson Student Center in solidarity with the Twin Cities immigrant community.
Students and staff spoke, prayed and sang in front of a crowd that ringed around the ASC atrium. A charged speech by sophomores Paulina Nunez-Hilton and Raniya Abawari caused applause to roll through the gathered crowd.
“Our role was basically to write some sort of statement that sort of encapsulated the student experience,” Abawari said. “Because there’s a lot of students right now who are struggling just to come to school and who feel very unsafe.”
The crowd included professors, staff and university President Rob Vischer.
“It’s a lot of like, hush-hush, don’t say anything about it because we don’t want … administration to say something or your professor disagrees with you,” Abawari said. “This was really comforting and a very fulfilling experience, knowing that we have the support, I think, of this … institution to speak our minds.”
Although a traditional depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe – an apparition of the Virgin Mary – was on display, the two students stressed the importance of Friday’s gathering being interfaith and multicultural.
“You can’t say that it’s just a Hispanic or just a Somali or just an African experience. Like, I think everyone’s going through it, and it’s also an American experience within itself,” Nunez-Hilton said.
The event hosted by UST’s Campus Ministry and Office for Mission lasted less than 25 minutes, but kicked off a hard-to-miss display that will adorn the ASC through Wednesday.
Hanging paper butterflies, like the ones shown above, will be the first thing seen as students enter the building’s Summit Avenue entrance.
“Monarch butterflies are the symbol of migration. They fly thousands of miles and that journey comes with pain and suffering until death, but it’s a death that brings a new life,” Marta Pereira, associate director of campus ministry, said to the crowd.
Students had the chance to write either the name of someone they know affected by immigration enforcement or a message to them on the butterflies. Nunez-Hilton and Abawari both said they feel “comfort” knowing that there are people thinking of those on the butterflies.
“I also know that there’s so many more people that are experiencing this that don’t have support. And I know that those people for sure, at least have one person behind them, praying for them, and caring for them,” Nunez-Hilton said.
Nunez-Hilton and Abawari both recognized that students may feel uneasy coming to campus, but hope that their speech and Friday’s prayer service can help ease them.
“Our speech isn’t going to change the world … but what it is going to do is, it’s going to help. And it’s going to give the students that feel fear, that feel scared, that are upset with the university, that feel like nothing is being done,” Nunez-Hilton said. “That they know that there is someone that feels the same way as them, that they aren’t alone in their experience.”
Student affairs will host a “Listening in Community” event Monday at 11:30 a.m. in the Iversen Hearth Room in the ASC. This will allow the student body to ask questions and share their concerns with Vischer and other university leaders.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.
