Rally to Cease Rallying to be held Friday by AVW Newstime

Satirical group AVW Newstime is looking to make a statement Friday at 4 p.m. on College Green: the recent protests around campus are not working, and they will be protesting against them.The group, led by producer and senior biology major Evan Swingle, wants to comment on the lack of response from the administration on recent student protests through their Rally to Cease Rallying. “It’s not that activism is to blame for the fact that things aren’t getting done,” Swingle said. “It’s that our administration isn’t listening to the people who are raising their voices and trying to say, ‘We have a problem with this, why isn’t anything getting done?’”The rally will feature several scripted speeches from Newstime members. In order to not be too serious, the rally will also feature games and a talent show.“We’re talking about pieing people,” said Bianca Beavers, a junior visual communication major and the director of Newstime. “We’re trying to keep it lighthearted. … It’ll be a lot of fun.”According to Sam McCoy, a freshman studying communication, there are two ways rallies can go: either people they appreciate that there are voices on campus speaking up and sharing their ideas, or they ignore the rally because they think nothing is going to be done by the administration.“With this rally, it’s fun because the entire purpose is that it is a bunch of people yelling that the administration won’t listen to, and it is all support for just us,” McCoy said.The Newstime group isn’t worried about angering people — after all, they are a comedy show. The event is for publicity, but it’s also for fun.“One of the fun things about satire is that not everyone is going to get it,” Swingle said. “There are going to be people that are there like, ‘Well, wait a second, you’re holding a rally to protesting rallying.’ That’s very much our hope, is that people think it doesn’t make any sense.”Despite the joking way they’re approaching the issue, Newstime wants to make it clear that there is a real issue to be dealt with here.“I think that the way in which we are doing this is getting the message across,” Swingle said. “Obviously we’re not [trying to say rallying doesn’t work]. If you listen to us, if you come see what we’re talking about, and if you really think about the subject matter, the message is pretty clear.”