When students protesting “microaggressions” took over an administrative building at Occidental College in California, they issued 14 demands. The school agreed to all except the first, which required the firing of its president. Similar protests took place concurrently at other colleges nationwide.
Occidental’s five-day takeover was organized by Oxy United for Black Liberation, led by members of Oxy’s Black Student Alliance (BSA) and Coalition at Oxy for Diversity and Equity (CODE). Occidental says the demands they agreed to meet were:
- “Promotion of the new chief diversity officer (CDO) position to vice president level.
- “Increase budget of the CDO office by 50 percent.
- “Allocate $60,000 to Diversity and Equity Board (DEB) to fund programming and provide resources for black and other marginalized students.