Students gathered to commemorate the takeover over Day Hall by Latino activists in 1993 and discuss the current status of the Latino community at Cornell.

“Cornell’s mission is to foster personal discovery and growth, nurture scholarship and creativity across a broad range of common knowledge…[o]ur legacy is reflected in the diverse composition of our community.”

— Cornell’s Statement on Diversity, from cornell.edu.

In 1993, a group of predominantly Latino students reacted to acts of discrimination and racism on campus by staging a nonviolent takeover of Day Hall. This protest culminated in a series of demands that the University agreed to address. Among the University’s commitments was the hiring of more underrepresented faculty and the strengthening of programs such as Latino Studies.