Students rallied outside the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center today from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in support of the Brandeis Asian American Task Force’s initiative to create an Asian American Studies program at Brandeis. BAATF sent a letter to high-ranking administrators last week demanding a formal response from Interim President Lisa Lynch by today. No response was sent to the student body, posted online or distributed to the Justice.

BAATF had planned to run the protest to 3:00 p.m., according to the protest’s event on Facebook, which described it as a “Day of Action.” In the last half-hour, BAATF president Hin Hon (Jamie) Wong ’17 announced that the group would march to Lynch’s office while chanting “No program, no peace” and make themselves visible to her, but Lynch was not in her office. Wong told the group that she had requested Lynch’s presence at the protest and informed her of the time and location, and said that she felt that Lynch’s failure to be present reflects on how Lynch perceives this student movement.

“We’re going to fight for this,” Wong assured the crowd of about 60 students as they began to disperse. Both Lynch and Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel were seen passing the protest site while walking through Bernstein-Marcus toward the beginning of the demonstration, but neither approached or engaged with the group.

At the beginning of the event, Wong read from the letter to administrators, reiterating the need for an Asian American Studies program. She recited a famous quote from Assata Shakur — an activist and member of the former Black Panther Party — that was invoked several times during the recent Ford Hall 2015 occupation of Bernstein-Marcus: “‘It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.’”

Students held signs reading “We will NOT be your model minority” and “Our House Too,” among other phrases. Several negotiators and key organizers of the Ford Hall 2015 movement were present at the protest. The group had earlier issued a statement of support for BAATF on social media.

One student spoke about having no way to know her own history as a Filipino American, as Filipino history was barely taught to her in school growing up, and she feels that Asian history courses at the University hardly mention the Philippines. She illustrated this by stating that she had only learned that Filipinos had been in America since the 1500s when a member of the Brandeis Asian American Student Association told her.

The BAATF letter issued to the University last week calls for the University to create an Asian American Studies program with a major and minor, to hire three tenure-track professors for the new program, to appoint a Florence Levy Kay fellow — a two-year, non-renewable contract for a postdoctoral fellow — for Asian American studies and for administrators to work transparently with students in the process. Attached to the letter is a contract pledging to accomplish these tasks, which calls for signatures from Lynch, Senior Advisor to the President Peter Giumette, Interim Provost Irving Epstein, Chair of the Board of Trustees Perry Traquina ’78 and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren.

Wong stated at the end of the protest that negotiators from BAATF would meet with other University administrators later today.