Students stage zombie protest

About 30 students participated in what associate instructor and organizer Tristan Tager called a “protest for the greater good of humans” at 5 p.m. Friday at the Sample Gates.

The anti-zombie protest addressed a growing problem in America, Tager said.

Participants held signs that read “Just die. Again” and “More guns, less bites.”

“There’s a permeating theme of zombies being increasingly relevant to American life — zombies running around eating people’s brains, taking American jobs, zombies teaching in the math department and infusing the youth of today with an utter lack of vigor and energy,” he said.

In reality, the protest was an opportunity for finite math instructor Tager’s students to blow off steam prior to finals week.

Tager, who teaches a class of about 80 students, said the protest was partially meant to poke fun at the recent influx of protests on and around campus.

In the background, a man in a spandex American flag jumpsuit carried a sign reading, “’Merika hates Zombies!”

A group of students shouted at a couple walking by with a stroller, asking if the couple knew whether its child was a zombie.

“We felt this had reached a breaking point and that it really needed to stop, so we decided that, being the youth of America, the future was in our hands, and we took action directly,” Tager said.

The protest was met with mixed sentiments, as IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Professor of Economics and Bloomington City Council member Martin Spechler observed nearby.

“Are you for or against zombies?” a protester asked him. “I wouldn’t waste my time with that,” Spechler replied.

Later, Spechler said students should devote more energy to the social injustices present today, such as income inequality and concerns about oil companies.

“This is nonsense,” he said. “Students should be for or against something.”

At about 5:30 p.m., Tager suggested the group take the anti-zombie protest to the streets en route to Hartzell’s Homemade Ice Cream for a celebratory snack.