"Seventeen student protesters were no longer sitting inside the University of Virginia’s Madison Hall on Sunday. Instead, the group spent Easter in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, waiting for today’s bond hearing.

Whether they were in jail by their own volition is still up for debate.

The protesters are demanding that UVa employees be paid a “living wage” of $10.72 an hour, instead of the $9.37. They were arrested Saturday evening after staging a four-day sit-in at Madison Hall, which houses UVa President John T. Casteen III’s office.

The students remained in jail Sunday night, all held on charges of trespassing. One student, Kevin J. Simowitz, faces an additional charge of resisting arrest, while another, Andrew Mausert-Mooney, also faces a vandalism charge - which came, officials said, because a sofa leg was broken during the arrests.

Magistrate Wayne Davis on Sunday said the students had the opportunity to be released with a summons, but opted not to. “I’m not sure why, I guess they didn’t want to stop the protest,” he said.

University spokeswoman Carol Wood said the group had opportunities to avoid being charged, even in the moments leading up to Saturday’s arrests.

Fourth-year student and Living Wage Campaign organizer Abby Bellows told a different story. “Students repeatedly asked administration and police for an explanation of the summons but were ignored,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Despite that, students requested to sign the summons but again they were not acknowledged. … If students were treated with such tremendous disrespect, how do you think they are treating our workers?”

The sit-in at Madison Hall began Wednesday morning, and all week the Living Wage Campaign organizers held rallies and events outside the hall. Wende Marshall, an assistant professor of anthropology, was arrested Wednesday after trying to join the students inside.

On Saturday, Casteen ordered the arrests of the students after negotiations with the group appeared futile. “We took no pleasure in having to make this decision to arrest our own students,” Wood said. “That was the last thing that we wanted to do, but it became clear yesterday that they were dug in.”

Bellows, however, said the dialogue between Casteen and the students was productive. “We thought we were in the midst of good-faith negotiation,” she said, adding that concessions were being made on both sides.

Wood disagreed with Bellows. “[The students] were in some ways aggressive, and it didn’t seem as though they were there to listen,” Wood said. “The door is still open for discussion … but the floor of Madison Hall is not the place for that conversation.”

Casteen has said that increasing pay for the workers is beyond his power, and that student efforts would be better directed to the General Assembly in Richmond.

“This is one more instance of President Casteen being unwilling to engage in substantive dialogue,” Bellows said.

On Sunday evening, the front lawn of Madison Hall was still peppered with about 20 tents, several students and signs that said “Arrested: Spread the Word,” and “This will not go away.”

Indeed, Bellows said the group has no plans to end its fight. The group will rally this morning at the bond hearing in Charlottesville General District Court, and Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” will speak in front of Madison Hall at 1 p.m. today.

“We are disappointed, but not disheartened,” Bellows said. “The movement will grow stronger.”" (Jessica Kitchin, The Daily Progress, April 17, 2006)