Protest ends at Mt. Holyoke after suspensions are issued

A small group of students who took over an administration building at Mount Holyoke College -- a women's school located in South Hadley, Mass. -- gave up their protest Tuesday without achieving their main goals after the school took disciplinary action against them. The students had occupied Mary Lyons Hall for two days to highlight their demands that the school increase its cultural diversity and maintain the current need-blind admissions policy. But on Tuesday they walked out of the building when they were informed the school had suspended them. The protest was the second in less than a week at the oldest women's college in the country, and leaders of the demonstration claim it will not be the last. Fabiola Tafolla -- a Mount Holyoke senior who helped organize the demonstration -- said another major protest is already being planned for early May when the school's trustees will be on campus. The protesting students have several demands, but Tafolla said they are most concerned about proposed cuts in financial aid, which they believe will reduce the number of underprivileged and minority students at the college. Mount Holyoke junior Sungwon Park said the primary objective of the protest is to demand that the admissions process remain need-blind. If financial need becomes a factor in deciding who to admit, Park explained that fewer underprivileged and minority students who require financial aid will be accepted to the college. Park added that the demonstrators want to increase the presence of Asian Americans at the college by establishing an Asian American Studies Program and hiring at least one tenure-track Asian professor by next fall. Other demands focus on making the college more diverse. Tafolla said the protesters are calling for Mount Holyoke to hire four permanent chaplains of different faiths and to create a lesbian and bisexual center on campus by the end of the semester. Tafolla noted that the students decided to take over the building only after the administration responded to their initial demands with either negative or ambiguous responses. "We love Mount Holyoke and we are doing this to make it a better place," Tafolla said. "We will not let the traditions of Mount Holyoke die down. We are angry and we think that these things are important." But other students said they thought the protesters were acting too radically. "I agree with the demands that we've presented," Student Government President and Mount Holyoke junior Avery Oullette said. "I just wish there had been more negotiating between the administration and the student negotiating team before any extreme action was taken."

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