This year marks the 10th anniversary of an Oct. 15 riot at a Student Association meeting and an ensuing protest that drew 800 students to the Couper Administration Building.

The week following the protest, students staged a sit-in and filled the lobby for seven days. The students were demanding to speak to Binghamton University President Lois DeFleur about their anger at being kept out of the SA meeting and the use of force by Binghamton’s New York State University Police against students.

DeFleur did meet with “a group of 10 students who presented a list of demands” on Oct. 16, according to Pipe Dream, but only one of the demands was met — amnesty for student protests.

“We gained the attention and support of students and the community so much, we no longer need to occupy the buildings,” Noah Fessenden told Pipe Dream that week.

The sit-in and protests were in reaction to alleged racial bias in the SA during the previous months.

Tensions between the SA and students who favored multicultural representation in the SA were already running high after a decision to remove the position of vice president for multicultural affairs. More controversy was created by SA Judicial Board appointments, nominated by SA President Anthony J. Benardello — all the nominees were white males.

“I think the methods of racism and social injustice that we are fighting [10 years later] are just much more subtle, yet just as powerful,” said David Hagerbaumer, director of campus life.

Students disrupted the meeting that would have confirmed the J-Board appointees. As a result, the SA limited the number of students who could attend meetings, which were moved to a smaller room. “It was a much more controllable space,” Hagerbaumer said.

But the restrictions did little to curb resentment from students, who, according to Hagerbaumer, filled the hallway outside the room.

In preparation for any violence, campus police sent 10 officers to the meeting.

Many students who were not accepted into the limited audience at the SA meeting fought their way past campus police who used pepper spray to stop them. It resulted in five students and one Campus Public Safety — now known as University Police Department — officer being hospitalized, at least seven others injured and one student arrested.

According to Assistant Chief William Dunn of University Police, the students began assaulting the officers trapped in the foyer, and eventually, police were forced to use the pepper spray to disperse the crowd. Dunn, who investigated the police action internally, “could find no fault in the use of pepper spray, given the result of those circumstances,” he said.

“What students are failing to see [today] is that they’re invited to participate, but don’t,” said Hagerbaumer. “Socially our society has changed so much since then in terms of how we react to things.”

“We have had a much calmer campus since 1996,” Dunn said. Dunn believes that students now seem to be much more focused on academics than concerned with activism.