Dozens of student protesters congregated at Gordon Commons Tuesday night, demonstrating against the allegedly discriminatory actions of Ed’s Express supervisor Dan Jonas March 1.

The protesting students, predominantly black, occupied every table at Ed’s Express in an effort to make their presence obvious and to encourage dialogue.

After a 10-minute stretch in which the protesters stood in silence as Ed’s workers and customers went about their usual business, a number of students spoke on discrimination, including Nick Sutton, one of the two students accusing Jonas of racial discrimination.

“Being a student of color, I found it very offensive that he would approach me and use the language ‘you people,’” Sutton said in an interview.

Brandon Walker, a representative from the Multicultural Student Coalition, said he wants University Housing to “come to an agreement with us for either Dan Jonas’ resignation or [for] diversity education.”

Walker said his group is not labeling Jonas or University Housing as racist but stressed that discriminatory acts should not happen and that he is not protesting an isolated incident.

“This is all built-up tension,” Walker said. “This incident was recurring.”

One reason for this tension, Walker added, is the unsatisfactory response from authorities such as University Housing. He said they wanted students involved in prior instances to come forward before University Housing begins investigating the incident.

“We started off with four or five people,” Walker said. “Now we’ve built a coalition. Immediately when we start our rally, all these people are here.”

Among the people at the rally was University Housing Director Paul Evans.

“Historically, that’s an awful thing to say,” Evans said regarding Jonas’ usage of the phrase ‘you people.’ Evans added he spent much of the day explaining the potentially offensive nature of the phrase to housing staff.

“Today, our staff having that dialogue was very useful,” Evans said. “We will continue to have some of those [discussions].”

Evans said he is nearing the completion of an investigation of the events of March 1 and that he is “really close to having a pretty good idea” of exactly what happened.

At this point, Evans said, he does not believe Jonas’ actions were race-related.

“That doesn’t mean the language involved wasn’t racial in nature,” Evans said. “I don’t believe the reason for the confrontation was racial. I certainly understand the language was inappropriate.”

Evans would not, however, indicate the likelihood of Jonas remaining employed at Ed’s Express.

“I don’t want to make any comments about that until we’re done with the investigation,” Evans said.

Sutton, the student who initially brought the events of March 1 to the Black Student Union, disagrees with the demands of Walker and the MCSC, saying he does not want Jonas to lose his job.

“I don’t believe that Mr. Jonas should be fired,” Sutton said. “I believe he should be reprimanded to the fullest extent — whatever that may be is up to Mr. Jonas’ employers.”

Sutton said Jonas “displayed prejudiced attitudes and actions” but does not consider him to be a racist.

Sutton said when he demanded justification for his being asked to leave the premises, Jonas cited a “prior incident he and his staff had with other students.”

“The reason I think it was a race issue was because of the specific language he used in approaching us,” Sutton said. “And because the prior incident his staff members had with other students, I heard from word of mouth, was with students of color.”