Macalester College student: We bunked it outside the office of the prez
It's Day 2 of the Macalester College student sit-in of the lobby of President Brian Rosenberg's office -- protesting the college's refusal to cut ties with Wells Fargo Bank over its house-foreclosure record.
I contacted student Alexander Bartiromo again, who told me by email:
We did indeed stay overnight, and it was honestly very relaxed. Since we are now occupying a much larger portion of the building, we had a lot more space (and people), so we were able to have a "sleep" room, a "quiet talk/homework" room, and an "activism/regular noise" room. We were prepared with sleeping bags and pillows, and many people from colleges around the country sent us food, so we were quite comfortable.
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Hip-hop artist Brother Ali apparently spoke twice there: "We started outside with Brother Ali speaking to a large crowd that gathered, and then moved inside and up the stairs towards the administrative wing, but access to the entire floor was locked. We chanted in the stairwell for about 10 minutes and then we came back to the lobby, where Brother Ali gave another speech (impromptu)."
I asked him: How how long will this go on?
Bartiromo replied:
We plan to stay until the a high-level administrator has a productive meeting with us and we are convinced that they are moving to cut the contract.