Donald Trump has made ridiculous conspiracy accusations that this was a professionally staged protest with paid protesters. This claim is entirely false. This was started by students, organized by students, and led by students. To be transparent, MoveOn.org DID donate 700 signs and 1 banner. But the phrases on the signs and banners were not decided on by MoveOn; those were decided on by students. MoveOn also sent out an email to their members informing them of the protest, but advertisement of a protest does not make them the organizers for it. Our student group began organizing this protest and started the FB page on Friday, March 4. MoveOn reached out to our group offering to donate signs and a banner on the night of Wednesday, March 9. And as far as being "paid protesters", we would have loved to be paid for this but our students gladly did it for free.
From Friday: Our goal tonight was to show Donald Trump that his bigotry and racism is not welcome here. Not on UIC's campus. Not in our city. We can safely say that tonight, this was accomplished. We, the students, would like to thank everyone who helped us make our voices heard today! We showed that when we come together, our different backgrounds empower us to stand up and fight back against blatant injustice. What we felt today here was beautiful - hate doesn't stand a chance against unity, solidarity, and a drive to do what is righ.