Students gathered outside the Wetherby Administration Building at 9:30 a.m., 12:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. on Thursday to protest the recent resignation from Larry Snyder as dean of Potter College.

Snyder resigned from his position at the dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters on Wednesday, releasing a statement about his resignation later that day.

No official reason has been given for Snyder’s resignation. 

Potter College student Arielle Conrad stood among a group of peers at the start of the protest, megaphone in hand and at the ready to lead chants such as “stand with Snyder” and “you don’t need to tell us lies, you just need to tell us why.”

“We want them to understand that we’re here,” Conrad said.

Students wrote on the steps of the Wetherby Building the phrase “your choices impact everyone.”

People from within the building acknowledged the protest, according to Tori Beck, a senior math education and dance major from Wilmore.

“I’ve seen [people from the building] come out and applaud us, and ask us if they can video tape and post pictures, which supports my idea that we’re not being told the whole truth as students and that there’s hidden agendas, because knowing Dean Snyder, I don’t think he would have resigned in the middle of the semester with no warning,” Beck said.

Other students like Audra Jones, a junior musical theatre major, advocated the importance of programs within Potter College.

“The arts matter, without our department, we would be living in a very boring life,” Jones said. “There would be no music, there would be no movies, there would be no literature.”

Some students said they came out because they felt confused by the situation, such as Jarrett Jarvis, a theater major from Hendersonville, Tennessee.

“It feels like a voice has been ripped away because it’s part of us as a collective and this isn’t just about theater,” Jarvis said.  “This is about arts as a whole at the school.”

Students wanted something to come from this protest, even if they don’t know what, said Jaclyn Schiess, a theater major from Louisville.

“We need to be recognized that we are important and that we have value and the university like won’t get rid of us,” Schiess said.

The chalk-written support for Dean Snyder has spread from the pavement that surrounded Wetherby Administration building and made its way down the hill to pepper the ground around Downing Student Union.

News reporter Abbigail Nutter can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected] her on Twitter at @abbeynutter.

News reporter Lily Burris can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @lily_burris.