SDSU President Apologizes To Students Protesting His Response To 'Islamophobic' Fliers

Elliott has been blocked from leaving campus in a police car for nearly an hour students were protesting students response to the fire distributed on campus a fire apparently from the David Horowitz freedom Center a right week organization listed names of students and faculty members who allegedly support the protesters briefly surrounded Hirshman's car chancing When Owen reporter for KC are welcome to the program. And 70. Did you see any of these fliers on campus and it listed the names of several SDA students some of whom are Muslim. How many protesters were at this incident? When I first got there there were about 40 or 50 surrounding the police car and that probably grew to 70 or 80+ a few bystanders that stopped. University president Elliott Hurston was in a police car during event, was he in any danger? No. The protest A pretty peaceful town. But overall it seemed peaceful. They were getting very close to him. They were completely surrounding. Their blocking of removing? S. During a protest there was a moment of relative silence. There was fair that took place there. Tell us about that. At one point the crowd that silent and to people led a group of about a dozen or so Muslim students, in prayer. They all bowed on their knees and went through Islam in prayer ritual and it was a very peaceful demonstration. Apparently the university already issued an email to students that was critical of the flyer. It said it might discourage students from speaking freely on campus. What else did the student you spoke with one from Hirshman? They went to explicitly condemn the fliers. They felt he wasn't as critical as this incident as he wasn't another anti-somatic incident. Did the student ultimately get what they wanted from the president? Not completely. They did get an apology. But they wanted him to explicitly condemn those spires. He didn't do that at this confrontation. But this is what he said. We have done things inadvertently that have upset or hurt people. We're sorry. This point he was allowed to pass through the crowd and made into his office. When how under the protest go on? This stand off between him and the students lasted for over two hours. As you say apparently when the president made the apology, there was that applause that we just heard. To the resist certain amount of satisfaction. That doesn't completely satisfy the protesters yesterday. Know. I talked to one of them after Hirshman had left and he said they really want more explicit condemnation of the fires. They're actually going to meet with him privately at a later date. But right now there's no public form on the schedule. Tell me, anything else you know about this discussion at a later date. We're not sure but that can involve, they said it will include some the protest leaders that were there student leaders at the protest. They will probably be discussing what they think the administration should do after these incidents occur. And you just happen upon this protest, then you? Yes. I heard there is anger going on after the incident had occurred where the students were compared with terrorist, and I'll think anyone knew that was going to lead to present Hirshman being surrounded in a police car for long as he was. , Thank you very much. I've been speaking with Quinn out when reporter for KC are at a news assistant here at KPBS.