More than 100 people marched on the campus of the University of Chicago last week to remember victims of gun violence and to ask for a Level I Trauma Center on the South Side. The students also wanted the university to drop charges against four protesters who were arrested the week before at a similar action.
Students for Health Equity, one of the groups that marched at the vigil, say the lack of a trauma center for victims over the age of 16 is part of Chicago’s “structural acceptance of violence.” The University of Chicago says the region’s nine trauma centers are already adequately serving the city’s South Side.

Supporters and members of Students for Health Equity and Fearless Leading by the Youth talked to the crowd about an educational panel that will be on Feb. 5 about trauma care and how it impacts residents in Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs. The panel will be in Kent Hall at the University of Chicago. Photo by Lucio Villa.