Police end student occupation of W&M president's office

6:50 a.m.

William and Mary police escorted five students occupying the president's office from the building just before 1 a.m. today. A spokesman said they were not taken into custody but cited for trespassing and issued a summons by William and Mary police.

"It is often admirable to care intensely about matters of policy and to be a strong advocate for a particular point of view," W&M President Taylor Reveley said in a statement early today. "It is not admirable, however, to insist that your point of view is the only reasonable one and that, until you get your way, you will disrupt the work of the university.  Occupying other people’s offices until you get your way is, of course, incompatible with the way we live together at William and Mary.  This tears the fabric and can not be accepted."

(This has been a breaking news update. This morning's story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch is posted below.)

Twelve students at the College of William and Mary demanding a living wage for campus employees staged a sit-in in the president's office Wednesday, with five remaining after they were ordered to leave.

"We're going to stay here until they meet our demands … or until they make us leave," said Katie Dalby, a senior from Leesburg and an organizer for the Living Wage Coalition. As of about 11 p.m., the five had not been removed from the office.

Dalby said the students began the sit-in at 9 a.m. in President Taylor Reveley's office, where the doors were kept open and the number of students grew to as many as 50 after a noon rally outside the office.

Two professors joined the students for a teach-in on labor issues, she said.

Reveley stayed in his office until about 2 p.m., she said. At that point he announced he was not able to work and left, and the doors were closed.

Ginger Ambler, vice president for student affairs, then told the students to leave by 2:45 p.m. or they would face sanctions.

"The students have had an opportunity to express themselves and were asked to move the protest outside the president's office so that we could get on with the business of the college," W&M spokesman Brian Whitson said. "A handful have remained and have been notified that they could face sanctions from the student conduct council for disrupting college business."

Student activism is a part of the college experience, Whitson said. "We want to let this group of students express themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner." The group was allowed to remain in Reveley's office for more than five hours before they were told they would face sanctions if they did not leave, he said.

The students took their protest to the board of visitors meeting last week, resulting in a tense exchange between the two sides, according to The Flat Hat. The student newspaper reported that Reveley told Dalby and others "you have closed yourself in great self-righteous ire."

The newspaper said Reveley told them it would be "very risky politically to raise wages at this time."

The coalition is seeking an hourly wage increase to $17.25, calculated as a living wage for a family of two in Hampton Roads.

Whitson said the average wage of $9.97 for housekeepers is higher than the state average of $9.43 for custodial work. He said it would cost $4.5 million to bring the wages of the college's 582 employees to at least $15 an hour.

Dalby, in a phone interview from the president's office, said the college finds funds for athletics and new buildings, "but when it comes to workers there's no money."

She said some employees have to work two to three jobs to make ends meet. "We see poverty on our campus," she said.

Three seniors were among five students who stayed in Reveley's office, with their attorney, she said. By 6 p.m., they were told they face multiple sanctions for violating the conduct code.

"I have invested four years in this school. I love it," said Dalby, who worried that the sanctions could result in diplomas being withheld.

"I definitely want to walk at graduation," she said. But the group feels the sit-in "is the only way they will take us seriously."

kkapsidelis@timesdispatch.com

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