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Thirteen protesters were arrested Monday evening following a daylong sit-in at the president's office of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Students and a few nonstudents organized the protest to demand changes that they said were needed to promote diversity and inclusiveness on campus. The group, known as Whose Diversity?, is seeking a range of changes, including increased financial support for Latino studies, a commitment to one all-gender bathroom in every building on campus and an end to crime alerts that note the race of suspects. The university released a statement Monday afternoon in which it said it supported the right of peaceful protest and expressed a willingness to join in discussions about the goals of the students who were protesting. On the students' Twitter feed, they said that the response was inadequate.
A statement released by the university Monday night said the students were warned repeatedly that remaining in the president's office after 6 p.m., when it closes, would constitute trespassing. "The university took this action [the arrests] as a last resort after trying to have a dialogue for nearly seven hours. We regret that individuals chose arrest over a peaceful conclusion. The protesters were cooperative and the arrests occurred without incident," the statement said. On the student protesters' Twitter feed, numerous comments criticized the decision to arrest students, and vowed that the movement would continue to push its demands.
The university has published a list of the demands and the university's responses.
