"The seventeen University of Virginia students who were arrested on Saturday afternoon for staging a four-day sit-in will appear in court at 9am tomorrow in Albemarle County Courthouse at 501 E. Jefferson Ave. Students are expected to be released from Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail following their hearing. At 1pm, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, will be speaking at a rally on the steps of Madison Hall, where UVA students have erected tents and been maintaining a continuous presence since the sit-in began. Several of the seventeen students are expected to attend and be available for comment. The campaign plans to continue rallying everyday in support of workers' rights for the rest of the week and building momentum through the rest of the semester.

Before their meeting yesterday, students tried repeatedly, including in a personal phone conversation with President Casteen, to establish more fair terms of negotiation. The students requested their legal counsel be present, a brief meeting with leaders inside and outside the sit-in, and a few more hours to prepare their counter-proposal, in addition to having access to food.

Students repeatedly asked administration and police for an explanation of the summons but were ignored. Despite that, students requested to sign the summons but again they were not acknowledged. Upon arrival at the magistrate's office, a warrant was written for their arrest. They were not given a second opportunity to sign the summons.

If students were treated with such tremendous disrespect, how do you think they are treating our workers? Given the power and privilege students possess and the striking proportion of low-income staff who are women and people of color, it is even more evident that President Casteen is systematically suppressing those whose opinions and backgrounds don't coincide with his own.

In due course, we will address how students were treated during the arrest, though the focus should remain on how badly the University treats its workers.

Contact: Abby Bellows (703) 408-8605, Todd Rosenbaum (540) 850-3822, and Ben Van Dyne (703) 932-9431."

(UVa Living Wage Website, April 16, 2006)