Last semester’s announcement of the Africana Research and Studies Center’s folding into the College of Arts and Sciences, after previously being under the supervision of the Office of the Provost, was met with almost immediate resistance from the Center’s faculty, staff, students and alumni. This resentment manifested itself in a protest on Day Hall during the last day of classes, featuring racially-charged rhetoric condemning the decision’s lack of transparency.

On a cold and rainy night this past Friday evening, members of the Board of Trustees, scurrying from dinner to a gala in Bailey Hall, were met with an unlikely greeting: peaceful, yet pronounced, student protest.

A self-described “coalition of students of color” staged the protest to shine light on what they consider to be a lack of administrative support for the needs of various minority communities on campus. Among these concerns were minimal financial resources for Asian and Asian-American students, neglect of student input in the decision to reassign Ujamaa Residential Housing Director Ken Glover and insufficient staffing at the Office of Minority Educational Affairs.

When Kenneth Glover, the veteran Ujamaa housing director, was abruptly reassigned to another dormitory this summer, backlash from the Cornell community reflected overwhelming support for Glover and his community-building initiatives within the residential college. Many saw the move as an attack on Ujamaa, which was established in 1972 to foster and promote black heritage at the University, and the outcry prompted the administration to temporarily reinstate Glover’s position for a year.