LINCOLN — UNL students clustered around Michael Rose-Ivey after a unanimous student-government vote Wednesday night to support the Husker football player and two teammates who knelt during the national anthem before last Saturday’s game.The Omaha World Herald reports the students’ voices, joined many others, some supportive and some opposed, in the conversation that focuses on the First Amendment and the players’ right to kneel during the national anthem and what’s an appropriate way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with societal problems.
Earlier Wednesday, UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green wrote to UNL students, faculty and staff in support of the players.
The chancellor said he understood that many believe the protest could have been done in some other way. But “the fact remains that their personal choice to speak in this way is a protected right that we all are afforded by the Constitution.”
On Tuesday, Regents Hal Daub of Omaha and Jim Pillen of Columbus criticized the way in which the players chose to protest, saying the three students used poor judgment.
The players’ action at the Northwestern game followed a national wave of athletes who have knelt, sat or raised a fist during the national anthem as a way to bring attention, they argue, to police shootings, brutality and oppression of minorities.