In the same month the country celebrates the birthday of the civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., the Central Black Lives Matter movement continues to work for change with the involvement of President James Gaudino.

“We’re not making mountains out of molehills,” said Armando Ortiz, president of Brother 2 Brother. “We’re trying to make these mountains molehills.”

The Black Student Union (BSU), Brother 2 Brother and other affiliated groups which protested last fall in solidarity with the University of Missouri Black Lives Matter movement are still working to gain recognition and equity for underrepresented groups on campus.

Gaudino has been attending meetings of the involved groups and helped write a letter of solidarity from Central to Mizzou.

Some future changes are already in the works for 2016. Targeted issues include designating a safe space for underrepresented groups and working together as students, faculty and administration to diversify the curriculum and faculty.

La’Shawnda Mason, junior food nutrition and dietetics major and the Equity and Services Council representative for BSU, feels the changes being implemented now are due to the success of their protest.

“Sometimes people tell us what we should do, but sometimes it takes to be a little bit more boisterous and let yourself be heard. And that’s what we did,” Mason said. “I feel we got our point across.”

One of the steps taken by the movement has been to write a letter to several university offices requesting a safe space for groups such as BSU and Brother 2 Brother.

Evelyn Briscoe, senior law and justice and sociology major and the president of BSU, believes the underrepresented groups on campus shouldn’t have to resort to meeting in the CDSJ and utilize their facilities in order to organize.

“[We’re looking for] a space where those people can come in and have their meetings and be able to have that space,” Briscoe said. “As of right now our stuff in student government is in a closet. That shouldn’t be that way.”

A matter of importance to the upperclassmen BSU members is making sure the movement continues to thrive after they leave Central. This involves handing down leadership to underclassmen and inspiring them.

“Things are moving forward,” Ortiz said. “The seniors that are in the concerned people’s coalition they understand it’s going to outlive them as well…Leaders always come and go, but it’s up to the leaders to motivate and inspire the younger generation to continue their work.”