Reed Student Lily Larsen, who initiated the protest at Bilger's office, contacted the Quest to apologize to the President's secretaries and make clear that the majority of those present did not intend to antagonize college staff

"[We] decided that it would be a good idea to take some of the signs and leave them in the foyer for when Audrey Bilger returned to her office to see," Larsen said, "My intention behind this was more quietly occupying the space or just leaving the signs, and the majority of people there came to just leave the signs. But there [were] a few people who were just really antagonizing the secretary. I just wanted to state that I believe that quietly occupying that space and leaving the signs there is something that's productive [and] causes minimal harm, but antagonizing the secretaries who have a pretty shitty job ... is not really productive, and just kind of makes things shittier for them." Larsen further pointed out that secretaries are also Reed staff, but said that some seemed to see Bilger's secretaries as a kind of "stand in for her." Larsen went on to say that she just wanted to apologize to President Bilger's secretaries, and that she "felt really bad" for how the situation had unfolded.