The University of Wisconsin’s Department of University Housing came to a settlement regarding an allegedly racist incident at Ed’s Express last month that resulted in several nights of protests held by student organizations.

University Housing Director Paul Evans settled the matter this week by announcing employees of the department will try to prevent such events from occurring again by getting involved in several different training programs.

“We’re planning several different training modules for the summer,” Evans said.

The incident occurred March 1 and involved Ed’s manager Dan Jonas allegedly referring to two black students as “you people” and attempting to remove them from the establishment.

According to Evans, the training programs include problem-solving and handling situations, advanced diversity education and a communication program. Along with the programs, Evans said he and the employees also addressed the issue and discussed more appropriate ways of handling similar situations.

“We’ve certainly had a lot of meetings with the Gordon [Commons] staff,” Evans said.

Quilen Blackwell, lead organizer for the UW student organization People Opposing Prejudice, said he and his organization were very pleased with the results they have seen after the incident. POP was joined by several other organizations in its protests, including the Multicultural Student Coalition and the Wisconsin Black Student Union.

“Basically, from our point of view, we are very content with the outcome and we feel like it is mutually beneficial for University Housing and the campus,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell added he was very satisfied with the way University Housing handled the situation, and the implementation of diversity-training programs was huge progress.

“We see this as a big victory for not only People Opposing Prejudice, but for the entire coalition that worked on this issue,” Blackwell said. “We also appreciate the swift action that the administration took [regarding the incident].”

Blackwell said Jonas’ punishment was appropriate for the type of incident that occurred.

“Mr. Jonas was reprimanded,” Blackwell said. “We can’t disclose what the punishment was for certain regulations.”

Evans says he believed the environment at Ed’s is as active as it always has been and although they haven’t had problems like this before March 1, he is happy to see students still patronizing the campus eatery.

“It seems like lots of students are eating, congregating and socializing in Ed’s, and we’re really happy about that,” Evans said.