According to the Chicago Tribune's Tony Briscoe, during a protest called for by the campus African-American paper The Black Tribune, protesters "locked hands and members of The Black Tribune asked the media, not including those from their own publication, to stand outside the perimeter."

"Hey, no media in the circle," Ryan Sorrell, the founder of The Black Tribune. "Sorry, man. You're good, but just not in the circle." As in the Mizzou protests, students then tightened the circle and locked arms.

According to The Black Tribune's reporting of the event, "We are not fighting to reform or support the oppressive systems that academia upholds. We are fighting for more spaces where black and brown students are safe and no longer targeted, terrorized and traumatized."