For one and a half hours, five student protesters occupied Sikes Hall. For one and a half hours, approximately 200 supporters waited under a hot sun for their exit.
Would the students be in handcuffs? Would they be under police escort with hands behind their backs and stuffed into a CUPD squad car?
The Clemson Five voluntarily emerged from Sikes on Thursday at 7 p.m. with no handcuffs or officers on their arms. Just five trespass notices.
Ian Anderson, A.D. Carson, D.J. Smith, Rae-Nessha White and Khayla Williams were arrested for remaining in Sikes after officials closed the building at 5:30 p.m. The charges were for trespassing.
“There’s not a 5:30 expiration date or timeline on justice that we want to see,” PhD candidate, activist and author A.D. Carson said. Carson was referring to the deadline that Vice President of Student Affairs Almeda Jacks gave to protesters who occupied Sikes Hall as part of #SikesSitIn.
“We allowed you to stay last night, happy to do that, but tonight we are going to close the building at … 5:30 … and you will leave and take your stuff with you,” said Jacks, who stood next to Interim Chief Diversity Officer Max Allen and Provost Bob Jones.
If protesters do not leave, Jacks said, “We will make you.”
After she, Allen and Jones exited the building at 4:45 p.m., the protesters picked up where they had left off in discussing President Clements’ letter.
The three administration officials had arrived earlier around 4:10 p.m. with multiple copies of a typed response from Clements to protesters’ demands for action. Students, faculty and staff had marched on Wednesday to Sikes from Fort Hill, where Monday’s banner defacement occurred. On the steps of Sikes Hall, students called on the administration to address a campus climate that, according to activists, marginalizes, disrespects and threatens underrepresented students.
Declining Allen’s request that students stay outside to ask questions, protesters went back into Sikes and discussed the letter one section at a time in an open-forum as the three officials stood at the bottom of the steps. After 30 minutes of discussion, Allen, Jackson and Jones re-entered the building around 4:40 p.m.
“We need you to wrap this up in about five minutes,” Allen said. That’s when Jacks issued the ultimatum about leaving the building. 
Jacks then said that individuals who remain in the building past closing may face arrest. Students had about 45 minutes to decide what to do.
Professors Chenjerai Kumanyika and Todd May talked to students about strategy and options.
Outside of Sikes, students stayed on the steps in solidarity with protesters inside. Senior Quanza Sloan questioned Jacks’ ultimatum.
“How can [the] student body voice our opinions if they’re going to threaten us with arrest?” Sloan asked.
When all protesters who did not wish to stay in Sikes had left, five students remained, the doors closed at 5:30 p.m. and the waiting began.
For 90 minutes, crowds of mostly students moved from one exit of Sikes to the other, trying to predict where the Clemson Five would come out. Ever so often, someone would say they saw something or point out a police car and then students would dash around the building.
The thought that the Clemson Five might walk out in cuffs troubled students.
Senior Amanda Ivester said the thought that students would be arrested is “ridiculous” and said that no wrongs had been committed.
“We’re trying to make a change that very obviously needs to happen,” Ivester said.
Senior Mauri Leonard said that student arrests would be “disheartening” and that administration is “trying to close down our voice.”
Sophomore Sherman Jones, who helped organize both the march and #SikesSitIn, spoke to supporters.
“We are waiting to find out what happens to the Clemson Five,” Jones said. “The Clemson Five represents all of us.” Jones then led the crowd in a chant:
“WE ARE THE CLEMSON FIVE! THE CLEMSON FIVE IS US! WE ARE THE CLEMSON FIVE! THE CLEMSON FIVE IS US!”
And then at 7 p.m., the Clemson Five freely walked out of the parking lot-side exit of Sikes: no cuffs and no police.
As Carson led supporters in a quick march around the building and back to Sikes’ front steps, the crowd echoed his chants:
“IT’S OUR DUTY TO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM! IT’S OUR DUTY TO WIN! WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER! WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS!”
When all the protesters and supporters gathered in front of the building, it was clear that the crowd from 4 p.m. had grown. The space was tight on the steps, to say the least.
After D.J. Smith and his fellow organizers regrouped, reporters swarmed on him.
“We had always prepared for the worst,” Smith said, commenting on students’ shock when Jacks alluded to arrests. “For me personally, I wasn’t shocked when they said it. I was disappointed because I was hoping for better from our campus leaders.” 
Smith encouraged all students to come out to #SikesSitIn.
When asked if there was anything he would say to students on the anonymous site Yik Yak, on which users have criticized protesters, or to drivers who yell at them, Smith had only one word to say:
No.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Justin Lee Campbell/News Editor

One of the Clemson Five, student D.J. Smith told reporters at the foot of Sikes that, "It kind of sucks that the university felt the need to arrest us ... because they always encourage students to stand up for what they believe in."