Students voted to occupy Baker University Center around 10:30 p.m. on Monday. Stick with The Post for details.
12:55 a.m. More than 100 students have opted to stay at the top of the Baker University Center for the time being, according to a Post reporter on the scene.
They have the option to stay the night in Baker Center if they so choose, said Ryan Lombardi, Ohio University vice president for Student Affairs.
12:27 a.m. Jenny Hall-Jones, OU Dean of Students, said she doesn't think there will be a police presence throughout the night at Baker University Center. She added, "There wouldn't be any reason to call the police" if the protest continues peacefully.
12:25 a.m. Baker Center staff has agreed to stay for the night, Lombardi said.
12:19 a.m. Many students have chosen to stay on hand at Baker Center and are awaiting a potential police presence. Some students are singing and clapping, according to Post reporters in Baker Center.
12:12 a.m. There has been no active police presence to this point at Baker Center, as students occupy the building past its official closing time.
12:06 a.m. Many students have not yet cleared the scene six minutes after Baker Center officially closed.
12:02 a.m. Hall-Jones, has stayed on scene at the top of Baker Center and is speaking with students.
11:58 p.m. A number of students have said that they will stay in Baker Center after its closing time of midnight, according to Post reporters on the scene.
Hall-Jones said that the OU Police Department and Baker Center staff will clear the building.
Around 10:30 p.m., about 90 Ohio University students and others voted to stay and occupy Baker University Center. Those gathered at the top of Baker Center sat in a somber circle in the wake of the announcement that Darren Wilson, a police officer, will not be indicted for killing Michael Brown, an African-American teenager, in August.
Signs that read "I am Mike Brown and "No Justice, No Peace" laid on the ground in front of protesters, who marched from the Civil War monument on College Green after the decision was announced at 9 p.m. Banners that read "Stop Killing Us" and "Black Lives Matter" hung from the building's fifth floor.
Students had a dry-erase board on which they were writing demands and voting as a group. Their demands included discussions with local police, disarming them and increased OU recruitment in inner cities.
Protests, some violent, erupted in Ferguson and across the country as President Barack Obama weighed in.
At OU, officials would not say what will happen if students stay in the building after it closes at midnight on Monday. OU Police Department Chief Andrew Powers declined to comment to The Post. By 11 p.m., Post reporters observed no police officers inside or immediately outside the Baker rotunda during the protest.
“This is not an isolated incident, this is a systematic problem,” said Kyle Tussing, a sophomore studying history. He called tonight's decision "crap."
“There are too many black people in jail, the criminal justice system is broken. We are going to hear that we need justice before peace and that’s crap.”
“We need to come back to campus after break and raise hell,” said Esther B
“We all live under the gun in uptown Athens ... fear in police in us,” said Louis-Georges Schwartz, a professor in OU's film school.rueggemamn, a junior studying history. She said tonight's decision cements nationwide acceptance of racism.
“We need to stop letting things die down," said Nasia Morgan, a freshman studying globalization development. "It is not okay. Mike Brown can be anyone of us. We really need to make an actual movement."
Ryant Taylor, a member of Student Senate and the past leader of multiple campus protests this semester, made the formal proposal to occupy Baker Center.
— Will Drabold, Samuel Howard, Megan Henry, Alex Meyer, Xander Zellner and Jeremy Hill contributed to this report.
