They’re handing out “Gators not haters” T-shirts and taking selfies with them. They’re creating hashtags and videos and posters. They’re marching and shouting through bullhorns. And they’re asking for classes to be canceled Thursday, when a white nationalist is set to speak on campus.

Richard Spencer, who led a torchlight march through the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on a weekend that turned violent as white supremacists clashed with counterprotesters, is scheduled to give a speech at the University of Florida on Thursday. Police are gathering on the Gainesville campus, and students are leading protest efforts on multiple fronts.

University of Florida President Kent Fuchs said the final tab for the school to provide extra security and logistics for Spencer’s visit will probably top $600,000.

It is unfair, he said, that large public research universities are expected to pick up the cost for these type of events. “At some point, the courts will have to weigh in,” he said. “We can’t be the only ones sharing this burden.”

Some groups are trying to drown out the message of Spencer’s National Policy Institute with their words.

On Tuesday night, students filled a student government meeting, with 50 waiting outside, to demand that classes be canceled Thursday. School officials have given permission for student and employee absences to be excused Thursday, but classes are continuing.

The school is giving Spencer the right to speak, said Ardyst Zigler, a senior from Orlando. “But I think the safety and well-being of students should come before anything else,” she said.

Their next mission, Zigler said, is to pass on the message so that other universities at which Spencer plans to speak are aware of the options and other protests, she said, “so there’s a network of students who have each others’ backs.”

No Nazis at UF issued a “call to action” urging people to gather at noon on Thursday at the performing arts center.

More than 3,500 people had signed an online petition to be delivered to the university’s president, calling the decision to allow Spencer to speak on campus abhorrent and unacceptable.