Donald Trump to host rally at UIC

CHICAGO (WLS) -- In response to Donald Trump's plan to hold a campaign rally at the UIC Pavilion on Friday, students, instructors and others have called for the event to be canceled. But University of Illinois - Chicago's chancellor says he has no grounds to deny Trump the use of the arena, as his campaign is paying for it.

About 180 UIC faculty and staff sent a letter Monday to the chancellor expressing concern about the rally and as of about 6 p.m. Monday, a petition on MoveOn.org had more than 44,000 signatures of people who opposed the event.

The petition's home page says, "UIC is home to working students... immigrant and students of color to have access to higher education and graduate ... The platform Trump would announce at the UIC Pavilion is a direct attack on much of the UIC student body."

Trump, who is vying for the GOP presidential nomination, is rallying supporters ahead of Illinois' March 15 primary.

On campus, 75 student leaders got together to plan their protest.

"Really, he just feeding the fear of a lot of the misconceptions that people seem to have about these minority groups," says Asal Wadhen, a UIC student.

"What we want to do is advocate for the groups that Trump's campaign has dehumanized," says Juan Rojas of "Stop Trump Chicago."

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Trump's opponents are shrugging off his attacks. Texas Senator Ted Cruz insists momentum is shifting his way, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio rebuffed Trump's call for him to drop out after dropping to third place.

"Of course Donald Trump is calling on people to drop out," Sen. Rubio said. "But Donald suffered some real damage over the last week and people are starting to learn that Donald Trump, the character, and Donald Trump, the person, are not the same thing."