COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – The University of Missouri Alumni Association is responding to requests and forming a Black Alumni Network.

The announcement follows the recent resignation of University System President Tim Wolfe after weeks of student protests over the racial climate on campus. Missouri Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin also resigned.

Chelsea Drake Marks, a 2012 graduate, told The Columbia Daily Tribune that she and other Missouri alumni wrote a recent statement calling for a black alumni network after talking about protests and events at the university. More than 1,000 alumni attached their names to the statement.

The statement says an official black alumni chapter would help alumni stay connected to undergraduate students.

The alumni association previously had a black alumni group, which formed in 1979 and became inactive in the mid-2000s.