A group of approximately 15 students gathered outside the undergraduate admissions office at Yale University on Thursday to protest the University's financial aid system. The protest forced admissions staff to lock their doors and scared off families of prospective students who were at Yale for tours and information sessions.

The students eventually seized the admissions facility and occupied it for approximately nine hours, while Yale Police cited them for trespassing, according to the Yale Daily News, the University's student newspaper. The admissions office locked its doors to visitors all day and rerouted all campus tours from their usual routes.

The students were angry because Yale has not eliminated undergraduate loans, a step already taken by Harvard College and Princeton University. The New York Times reported that Princeton eliminated loans four years ago, and Harvard provides full scholarships for students from low-income families.

"The student protesters, perhaps 150 in all, said they merely wanted Yale to do what so many of its rivals have already done: scale back, and perhaps even eliminate, the amount that low- and middle-income students have to pay," The Times reported. "We expect Yale to be a leader on this, not behind everyone else," Julia C. Gonzales, a Yale senior, told The Times.

According to The Times less than two days before the protest, Yale president Richard C. Levin told a group of students that he was close to taking serious action to alter the University's financial aid policies, particularly in response to similar decisions already taken by Harvard and Princeton. "We don't want to be left behind," Levin told the student audience, according to The Times.

"Our goal for today was to see President Levin commit to serious reform and specifically for him to recognize that choosing between the student contribution and the family contribution being reduced is not a reasonable choice to ask low-income families to make," Josh Eidelson, a Yale junior who participated in the protest, told the Daily News. "I think Yale needs to do both because we're concerned who's coming to Yale and about what kind of experience they're having here and what kinds of opportunities they're having after they leave."

The Times noted that Yale's applicant pool fell by 1.2 percent this year, whereas Harvard and Princeton each saw an increase of more than 15 percent. The Times suggested that differences in financial aid may have been to blame.