Approximately 35 students gathered in the ground floor of the Usdan University Center on Thursday afternoon to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, a protest against corporate corruption and wealth distribution that has spread across the country since it began in New York on Sept. 17.

The students held a General Assembly meeting in the Usdan Café area and discussed issues such as the impending eviction at Zuccotti Park where Occupy Wall Street is based, protests in Middletown, and voter registration.

“[Occupy Usdan] is so incredibly impromptu and it’s always in the process of becoming and I think that’s what makes the protests so prescient, so important and so special,” said Andrew Pezzullo ’13. “Obviously things are looking a little bit unorganized and a little small. But if we can open the conversation and we can do it in a way that’s consensus driven and make sure that all the voices are heard.”

This event was organized by an online group associated with Occupy Wall Street called Occupy Colleges. The group called for participating students to host sit-ins and general assemblies at their colleges to discuss and raise awareness about the Occupy protests. The event was scheduled to take place simultaneously at colleges across the country at 4:30 p.m. EST on Oct. 13.

However several students who had not heard about the event beforehand were confused about the intentions behind the protest. Some students were unsure whether it was against corporations or the University itself.

“I don’t really know what it’s about,” said Stephanie Diaz ’15. “I don’t feel like Usdan is doing anything wrong, so I don’t really know why they’re occupying it.”

Pezullo, however, was very direct in his explanation for the protest.

“Essentially this is a national college campus class [protest] day,” he said. “At over 60 schools, there were groups of students planning to walk out in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protest and the other Occupy protests nationally and internationally, in an attempt to localize the demands, issues, and problems with the economic order that are being protested at Wall Street and bring them back to our campuses.”

Approximately ten students met before the Occupy event at the Wesleyan Student Assembly Student Groups Office at 4:15 p.m. to discuss exactly how it should be run and make signs advertising the event. Some of the ideas suggested included holding a general assembly on the Usdan staircase to block the way to dinner and holding the meeting outside. Eventually the students decided to hold the assembly in the middle of the first floor of Usdan.

Upon arriving at Usdan, participating students began the event with “the people’s microphone,” a technique characteristic of “Occupy” protest, which stipulates that the group repeat all words of the speaker. Then the goals of Occupy Usdan were announced to the students, faculty, and staff present in Usdan at the time. The students stated their intention to occupy Usdan for two hours and form a consensus-based General Assembly to discuss some of the issues that Occupy Wall Street is trying to address.

“As a college that’s had almost 100 people go [to the protest in New York], Wesleyan is standing as one of those colleges in support of Occupy Wall Street,” said the assembled students.

At the General Assembly, participating students discussed what to do about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s demand that the protesters leave their current encampment in Zuccotti Park. This demand was issued because Bloomberg and the corporation that owns Zuccotti Park believe the protesters had failed to keep the park clean. Several students resolved to visit the protest this weekend in opposition to this demand.

Using a consensus-based vote, attendees also decided to form a group that will encourage students to transfer their accounts from larger banks to smaller banks.

“I think it’s great, we have a General Assembly going and a little signage, and the point is to get the word out,” Pezzullo said.

Of the students who attended the assembly, most were quite positive about the event.

“I love that it’s coming to campus again,” Ross Levin ’15 said. “I was really happy with and helped with the tents on Foss, because it’s a chance to get out that message on campus that the bottom 99 percent in terms of wealth are really hurting in this country… Bringing a general assembly to Usdan is a great way to show how well these direct democracies work and it’s a major part of the Occupy movement.”

The student occupiers hoped that the event would mean that the Occupy movement would continue to have a great effect on the University.

“I’d like to see more general assemblies on campus,” Levin said. “I think democracy is important in all aspects of life, not just politically. So hopefully we will have more events like this and other things on campus will be run more democratically.”