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Howard University students ended their takeover of the Administration building on Friday. Spurred on by reports that six employees had been fired after stealing financial aid money but the theft wasn’t known for months later, and devolving conditions on the Washington, D.C. campus, students took over the Administration building for almost a week.

Student activists issued a series of nine demands, which included the ouster of embattled HU president Wayne Frederick. The students generated and enormous amount of support online in a protest that was reminiscent of another student-led protest that rocked the school in 1968 and 1989.

Howard is among the most respected HBCU’s in the country but has struggled with finances and aging school campuses like many other HBCU’s. But students ended the sit-in after claiming victory in most of their demands.

Essence.com reports:

“This is a long time coming,” HU Resist student organizer Alexis McKenney said at a press conference Friday.

University officials are said to have agreed to many of the students’ demands, including an overhaul of the school’s sexual assault policy, the creation of a food bank, freezing undergraduate tuition rates at current levels, re-examining  on-campus housing for students, and a review of policies allowing campus police officers to carry weapons, NPR reports.

HU Resist also stopped calling for the resignation of university president Wayne Frederick.

“Today marks the next chapter of progress at Howard University,” Marie Johns, a member of the board of trustees said. “These commitments are meant to address the needs and are for the benefit and welfare of the entire Howard University community.”

This is not the first time student protesters have led a successful sit-in at the historically black college. According to CNN, two previous protests at Howard, in 1968 and 1989, also took place in March and involved students taking over the administration building.

PHOTO: @HUResist Twitter

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Howard University Sit-In Ends Peacefully With Most Demands Met  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com