Twenty-six days after the student protestors first walked into the Allen Building, students took down tents they erected in solidarity outside the building on Abele Quadrangle.
Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity, the group that organized the recent Allen Building sit-in and protests, held a rally and vigil Tuesday evening as the group took down its tents in A-Ville. Protestors said that they would continue organizing during the summer and into the Fall semester.
“This is not the end of A-Ville. This is only the beginning,” said sophomore Jazmynne Williams, one of the nine students who occupied the Allen Building for eight days. “We will be taking a break and re-gathering our strength and coming back.”
Williams read demands from the 1969 Allen Building takeover and reiterated the demands that the administration has yet to complete.
Approximately 50 people attended the rally commemorating the end of A-Ville for the semester. Sophomore Dipro Bhowmik, another former occupier, criticized administrators for failing to continue negotiations after protestors left the building.
“Both DSWS and administrators agreed to act in good faith. More than two weeks after the sit-in ended, the administration continues not to act in good faith,” Bhowmik said. “They committed to start negotiations within seven days of the sit-in ending, but we have not heard anything from them.”
Following the rally, protestors hosted a vigil to reflect on the past year and the removal of pride flags and discovery of a white supremacist pamphlet at the encampment.
Several students pitched tents earlier this month to support the nine students occupying the Allen Building. The sit-in began following allegations of discrimination within the Parking and Transportation Services department and a Chronicle article describing a 2014 incident in which Executive Vice President Tallman Trask hit contract parking employee Shelvia Underwood with his car and allegedly used a racial slur.
Anastasia Kārkliņa, Trinity ’14, a Ph.D. student in literature and African and African-American studies and a media liaison for DSWS, noted that one of the main accomplishments of the protest has been highlighting the issue of worker abuse at the University despite adversity.
“To me, it has been about what is possible all along, and I think it is true to say that many did not think this kind of community, this kind of resistance, was possible, but it has been,” Kārkliņa said.
Kārkliņa explained that the group would work to continue its efforts next semester by mobilizing and healing during the summer. DSWS is attempting to create a sustainable movement by bringing together undergraduate, graduate students and faculty together.
Although Kārkliņa said the group was unsure of the exact form the protest would take in the Fall, she noted that discussions are ongoing and several students have expressed interest in continuing to tent.
Williams noted that the students who occupied the Allen Building in 1969 did so after two and a half years of attempting to work with administrators and connected it to DSWS’ current work.
“We will be back and we will be fighting for these demands because we stand on the ground of our ancestors that fought before us." Williams said.
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Adam Beyer is a senior public policy major and is The Chronicle's Digital Strategy Team director.