Penn State students, administration and faculty learned that silence can be deafening as some students were silent for eight hours for the Day of Silence yesterday.

The participants were silenced to identify with those who feel oppressed, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and ally community, rape victims and minorities.

Dominica Bowski, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance president, said at a press conference that she chose to silence herself to raise awareness. She said awareness is powerful and crucial.

"Let's make the silence heard, make the silence seen and make the silence disappear," she said.

Galen Foulke, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president-elect, also spoke at the press conference before he took the vow of silence.

Foulke said the day was "beautiful and brilliant" and that making a vow to not speak would be invoking more thought than trying to convey messages through words.

"Silence can be a powerful thing," he said. "Maybe even more powerful than the loudest protest."

Current USG President Ian Rosenberger did not attend any of the events for the day because he said he has been busy transitioning for next year's administration.

However, he said he wore green bands to support the silence.

"It's amazing to watch and think to yourself about," Rosenberger said. "I wish we had 40,000 silent students. That would have been one powerful message, but I'm proud of the students who took part this year."

He said the event would continue to grow and become more meaningful to Penn State's campus climate in the future.

The 250 students who participated took a vow on the ground floor of the HUB-Robeson Center before counting down and dispersing in silence. Over the course of the day, they held silent rallies by the Palmer Museum of Art and in the HUB.

Students who took vows but could not attend the rallies made themselves known by wearing T-shirts and green wristbands. The Day of Silence shirts quoted Martin Luther King Jr. They said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."

Penn State College Republicans Chairman Rich Pastena said the group has no intention of mocking the event because it is not a political event like National Coming Out Day. In November, the College Republicans gathered at Old Main in their "Conservative Coming Out Day."

"I think the goal is to bring attention to students who strongly feel oppressed," Pastena said. "We would never do a Day of Silence because this goes deeper than political beliefs."

He said he supported the events and believes people should have days to call attention to fear and oppression.

The eight-hour period of silence ended with a celebratory "Speak Out." Participants counted down with numbers held in the air, and when 6 p.m. came, they screamed, shouted and blew on noisemakers.

At the end of the day, Foulke said he had done well, aside from an incident where he spilled hazardous chemicals during a lab and used his voice to alert others. Foulke said he felt proud of himself.

"It's not easy, that's for sure, but I got the message across," he said. "People wonder why you're quiet so you point to your shirt. They ask what it means, so you hand them the [explanation] card."

Maya Tessema (sophomore-international politics) said she forgot how to talk after being silent all day.

"I was thinking about the message all day, but now different words are just spilling out," she said. "You really appreciate what a lot of people go through being silenced."

Jamie Ziegenfuss, Allies political director, said he spent the day thinking about his life before he came out and comparing it to his silence.

"I was surprised by the parallels I found between the two," he said. "During the day, I wanted to acknowledge friends and I couldn't. It reminded me of not being able to express all I felt."

David Gelpi (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) said he did not participate in the Day of Silence because he had been silent for too long before coming out.

"I was explaining the day to someone, and they said, 'Wow, you had to be silent for eight hours?' and I said, 'Yeah, I had to be silent for 17 years,' " he said. "It has a deep meaning for me, but I couldn't do it."

He said he hopes others' silence spreads the message of solidarity to others.

"We're preaching to the choir because people who understand it are the people who are already conscious of it," Gelpi said. "Any oppressed group is just as human as everyone else, and they deserve the same respect that anyone would demand for themselves."