DeKALB — The Black Student Union’s Black Lives Matter Week Two continued Wednesday with A Day Without Black Students, for which black students took time off of class and gathered in the Holmes Student Center.

Kendra Wilkinson, junior biology major and director of academics and education for the BSU, said this day was about self-care for black students participating in Black Lives Matter but was also about sending a message.

“It was important for us to let the campus know that we are here, and if we are not here, that would take away a lot of what we talk about, talking about diversity, equity and inclusion,” Wilkinson said. “That would take away a large chunk of what it means to be a Huskie.”

Darius Parker, senior journalism major and director of civil disobedience for the Black Student Union, said the original plan was for students who took the day off of class to gather at the Center for Black Studies, but the group received push back from black faculty who wanted the students to go to class.

BSU leaders changed the plan and moved their gathering to the student center. Parker said he told everyone who wanted to participate they should go to class if they needed to, but they should stop by the Holmes Student Center to take a break.

Parker said the day consisted of students hanging out inside the student center by the bus turn around and listening to music, eating snacks and talking.

Multiple professors, including Amanda Littauer, associate professor of history and women, gender and sexuality; sociology professor Kristen Myers; and Paul Stroik, visiting assistant professor of economics, said they didn’t notice a significant difference in black students missing from classes Wednesday.

Littauer teaches a small seminar on Wednesdays and has two black students in her class. One of the students was not in class, but she did not know the reason.

“The one [black student] who was absent did not contact me in anyway to let me know that that’s why she would be absent, and if she had, I would have been supportive,” Littauer said.

Grace Taiwo, senior computer science major, said she noticed black students missing from her classes. However, she did not know about A Day Without Black Students.

“I didn’t know what to attribute it to because I wasn’t aware of the protest, so I just thought like okay, maybe those particular people were all sick,” Taiwo said.

Wilkinson said this was a day for students to take a break from the week’s demonstrations.

“Today was awesome,” Wilkinson said. “I think that in the coming days, if you ask students if they stopped by here, they would tell you that, you know, it was a breather.”