Over 100 students and community members taped their mouths shut to make their voices audible to the trustees on a stormy Friday evening.

Bailey Plaza shone red as specially-installed outdoor lights reflected off the rain-soaked pavement, illuminating the faces of student activists. In front of a Cornell crest shone on the wall of the Space Sciences Building, lines of students held signs that read “RIP Safe Spaces at Cornell” and handed quarter cards to Cornell’s trustees, who stepped out of buses and strode towards the Presidential Gala in Bailey Hall. The loud music blasting from the trumpets of a pep band competed with the chants of some student protesters as the sound of pouring rain persisted throughout the protest.

Multicultural student organizations and those who share their concern over suppression of minority voices on campus came together in the peaceful protest that targeted the University Council and the Board of Trustees, which converged in Ithaca this weekend for a quarterly meeting.

The protesters, mostly of black and Hispanic origins, demonstrated against a lack of student voice on campus and hoped to achieve more student involvement in administrative processes as well as more open dialogue about diversity.

“We just want open ears,” said Zach Murray ’11, who is involved in Students for Ken Glover and several other multicultural student organizations. “We want more than a promise to hear us. We want them to listen.”

Some trustee members took quarter cards distributed by the protesters, but only a few conversed with students about the purpose behind the demonstration.

“Some people were receptive, others were the exact opposite,” Murray said. “We handed out quarter cards, and I think we got our point across.”

Students involved in the protest worked their way up the administrative ladder before addressing the trustees. They met with representatives from representatives from residential programs, vice president for student and academic services Susan Murphy ’73, deputy provost David Harris and president David Skorton before taking the issue to the Board of Trustees.

At Friday’s Board of Trustee meeting, Darren Jones ’09, Ola Williams ’09 and approximately five other students addressed the Trustees during the open session of the board’s meeting on the lack of diversity funding, citing the state of the Asian and Asian American Center.

“Support isn’t there as much as we need,” Williams said.

The original vision for Friday night’s protest was to remain symbolically silent as the trustees entered Bailey Hall. At the same time, the students would run their own program outside the hall while the Presidential Gala was taking place.

The trustees’ program began an hour later than scheduled, and the protest was consolidated in the interest of time. One of the main themes of the protest surrounded the abrupt reassignment of longtime Ujamaa Residential Housing Director Ken Glover over the summer.

Protesters chanted: “Who do we want? Ken Glover! When do we want him? Now!”

Community members, many of whom knew Ken Glover on a neighborhood level, came out in numbers.

“Mr. Glover is more than just a position. It’s more like taking the heart out of the minority community,” Nicolas Chavez ’10 said.

Through the wind and rain: Despite wind and rain, representatives and supporters of a variety of student minority groups, including Ujamaa Residential College, the LGBT Resource Center and the Asian/Asian-American Center gathered outside a Trustee Weekend event in Bailey Hall to protest what they see as a lack of support and funding from the administration.

Student leaders gave speeches during the protest, calling for people to unite and drawing parallels among the multicultural, Muslim, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and queer communities on campus to bring attention to the broader issue of student voices.

“'Enough is enough' is the attitude of many students on this campus,” Murray said. “We spend way too much time advocating for things that this University should offer.”

Students also expressed concern over the administrative restructuring of the Office of Minority Educational Affairs and the funding appropriated to the Asian and Asian American Center.

“I think what we got from [the turnout from the Ithaca community] was an even stronger connection to move forward,” Murray said. “We want to make sure that from now on we to connect with the community on these types of issues.”

According to Murray, a group of community activists who meet with Skorton quarterly plan to raise issue with the concerns of minority students on campus.

An active response to the protest on the part of the administration remains to be seen, but students hope to see a greater dialogue about diversity in the future.

“They are passionate about their concern and wanting to find a way to express their concerns to the council members and the trustees,” vice president Murphy said Sunday evening in response to the protest.

Murphy does not expect the Board of Trustees and the University Council to respond directly to the students’ concerns. Rather, Trustees expect the issue to be handled by the administration, according to Murphy.

Will the administration address the problems being expressed?

“We are in active conversation with [the students involved in the protest],” Murphy said. “We had a productive conversation with the president and David Harris and myself this week and we are trying to schedule a follow-up later this fall.”

Additional reporting by Matt Hintsa and Lucy Li.