Concerns of a second presidency led by president-elect Donald Trump include plans for mass-deportation of immigrants, along with a potential crackdown on reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights. 

With emotions running high between students, the event began with a brief speech by organizer Savitri Anantharaman.

"If we let ourselves get caught up in all of those emotions, it stops us from acting, from using the power that we do have to stop the worst of what this man can do in this country," Anantharaman said. 

Social relations and policy senior Eli Folts said the event was organized urgently after the results came in. He, among others part of Students United Against Fascism, organized the meeting to contain the energy of students and get them involved in actionable items.

"We cannot rely on the institutions to save us, to support us, because though they may in some aspects, they're not right now, and they're not going to over the next four years under a Trump presidency," Folts said.

Folts was surprised by the election’s outcome. He said the Democratic Party had created a false sense of optimism that it would outperform Republicans. Folts is scared and disappointed, but not necessarily surprised by how the Democratic Party faltered.

"If they're going to decide to lean into the conservatives who might vote Democrat, and ignore Arab and Muslim voters or people sympathetic with the Palestinian cause, of course this happens," he said. "It wasn't because of the Green Party. It was because of decisions made by the Democratic Party."

With the stress and anxiety this election has instilled in students, Folts said he hopes students use those high emotions and transform them into change. The meeting aimed to start planning and foster a community for those who need it. But Folts said the real work will begin once change finds its way onto campus after Trump’s inauguration. 

The MSU Board of Trustees race, although currently too close to call, has both Republican candidates narrowly leading. Candidate Julie Maday, whose priorities include ensuring that transgender women cannot compete in women's sports, raises another flag of concern for Folts.

"We are not going to let transphobic rhetoric of any kind slide," he said. "Groups on campus promoting transphobia have not been held accountable in the past, and so I don't expect that to change."

During the event, students were encouraged to process their emotions through roundtable discussions. Afterwards, some shared theirs to the room. Many said they had newfound motivation after seeing and hearing from the community which coalesced under short notice.

African American and African studies senior Evamelo Oleita said she is disappointed by the election results but not surprised.

"People were not ready for a Black woman to be president," she said. "If this country was not ready to elect a white woman to be president, they absolutely were not going to elect a Black woman to be president."

Oleita said that it's not just the next four years people need to focus on, but instead a lifetime of change. 

"This conversation did not start when Trump got elected back in 2016, this conversation has always been happening," she said to the students. "I am comfortable with the fact that all of the things that I want to see happen in this world are not going to happen in my lifetime. Are you also OK with that? Are you OK with understanding that we are talking about a system that has been here so much longer than some of our families?"

Instead, Oleita told the room to focus on what can be done now.

"If the roles were reversed, they would have been outside burning things down right now," she said.

The students will hold a walkout this Friday at 2 p.m. at the Demonstration Hall field. Comparative cultures and politics senior Jesse Estrada White said the rally is only the start of a larger task for the organization: resisting Trump and his administration while concurrently working toward a world they want to live in. 

"We're going to end the climate crisis," Estrada White said. "We're going to start building a just campus that doesn't recreate the racism and the colonial hierarchies and relationships that we see every day on this campus. We're gonna end the genocide in Gaza, and we're gonna make sure that students actually have a say over their campus and communities they’re in."

The night ended with several breakout groups, organizing roles for the rally on Friday and the greater movement as a whole.