About 25 students and workers participated in a sit-in outside Chancellor Gene Block’s office this afternoon to protest the suspension of free tutoring programs in Covel Commons.

Administrators announced in March that the Covel Peer Learning Labs would be discontinued for next year because of funding issues, which has spurred an outcry from participants and supporters of the program.

“I’ve seen what our services do for students,” said Elida Ledesma, a program facilitator who graduated from UCLA in 2010. “It’s a service that’s needed and it’s a shame the university doesn’t acknowledge that.”

The day-long protest led to Janina Montero, vice chancellor of student affairs, exiting her office near Block’s and addressing the protesters. She told them the concern is a shared one.

“I’m very confident we’ll find a solution,” Montero said. “I don’t know it’ll be the model we had in place, but I’m confident we’ll find a solution.”

Montero expressed her willingness to work with the protesters by helping them communicate with Judith Smith, vice provost of undergraduate education, who oversees the tutoring program. She said she would continue to communicate with Smith and contact the organizers for a meeting within the next weeks.

Organizers were promised that funding for drop-in tutoring programs on the Hill, which is different from CPLL, would not be affected.

“Whatever we’ve provided in the past, we will continue to provide,” Montero said.

The march and sit-in were part of a day-long protest to advocate reinstating the tutoring programs.

“The biggest thing is to open up more communication between current administration and Covel employees,” said Jenae Cohn, a composition supervisor at CPLL, UCLA alumna and former Daily Bruin writer and photographer. “We’re trying to figure out a contingency plan because right now there are no concrete plans.”

The protesters picketed outside of Murphy Hall from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and gathered signatures from about 150 students for a petition to save the program. At about 2:30, the crowd entered Murphy Hall and marched through the building chanting “Save Covel!”

At 2:35 p.m. the protesters reached Chancellor Gene Block’s office where they delivered their petition and demands, and began their sit-in. The chancellor was not in his office.

The demands included greater inclusion of Covel employees in the plan for next year’s tutoring services, and inclusion of the workers in the committee assessing the need for the tutoring program, set up by Smith.

Raquel Saxe, academics affairs commissioner for the Undergraduate Students Associated Council, was present at the event and expressed her concern about the future of the program, which will not be funded over the summer. The administration is still working to come up with a plan for next year’s tutoring programs.

“We are now the only UC that doesn’t offer free tutoring,” Saxe said. “Even if we lose any time (of tutoring) next year, we’ll be losing value because we have a large incoming freshman class.”

Orientation counselors used to point to Covel as the first resource for help when students came in, but now they have nowhere to direct them, Saxe said.