NORTHFIELD, MINN. — Hundreds of students, some wearing pajamas, others carrying pillows and blankets, gathered on the St. Olaf College campus Monday morning to protest a string of racist incidents over the past school year, the latest being a threatening note that was left on the windshield of a black student’s car demanding that she “shut up or I will shut you up.”

The students, who boycotted classes Monday, began gathering at Tomson Hall just before 7 a.m. in preparation for a daylong sit in. Within a half-hour, scores of students had lined the hallways and corridors of the building, located in the heart of the campus about 45 miles south of the Twin Cities.

Organizers of the sit-in, who asked that students of color sit in the front of the room, later passed out a detailed list of demands of school administrators outlining specific changes they want to see to address the racism they say is “embedded” on the campus.

The demands included calls for strengthening racial and cultural sensitivity sessions for all incoming freshmen and establishing a mandatory “sustained dialogue” for all student athletes, members of the student government association and the student senate for at least length of a semester.