Students Patricio Rojas, Asma Elhuni, Sam Hogan, Lindsay Wilson and former state representative Doug Dean were arrested in Centennial Hall around 9 p.m. last night after staging a sit-in to demand Georgia State University President Mark Becker sign a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
Photo by Jade Johnson | The Signal
Students with the university’s chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) have argued that a CBA would prevent displacement in the communities surrounding the Georgia State stadium, once the redevelopment and construction begins.
USAS has partnered up with residents from those communities and say they have been trying to meet with Dr. Becker to get him to sign, or at least negotiate, the agreement.
And Monday night, the students were determined to have a meeting, and announced they would not be leaving the building until they met with the president.
Photo by Jade Johnson | The Signal
Centennial Hall, which houses the president’s office as well as the Honor’s College, is set to close at 5 p.m. every day. But Georgia State police said they wanted to give the protesters enough time to get their point across.
Georgia State University Police Department (GSUPD) Chief Joseph Spillane told The Signal the officers decided to give students and residents an ample amount of time to protest, but once they heard them talking about staying all night, they “had to make a decision”.
“I didn’t want to wait until the end of the night,” Spillane said. After 11 p.m. our force goes down, so we didn’t want to have to remove people at 3 a.m.”
He said once morning watch came around, with a decreased number of police officers on campus, he didn’t want to have some of them still stuck in Centennial Hall
All five people arrested were taken to Fulton County jail, and no one has been released yet.
Please check back for updates.
