Four MSU students were arrested at the Administration Building on Wednesday after members of the Coalition Against Sexual Violence and other MSU students protested on campus, took to the streets and occupied the Administration Building in conjunction with the group’s Day of Rage event.
The Coalition started the event by holding a “Speak Out” at the rock on Farm Lane, which had about 25 protestors holding signs and yelling explicit chants that denounced rape and the perceived rape culture at MSU.
Following the Speak Out, protestors proceeded to move onto the sidewalk with their signs and banners, before marching down the middle of Farm Lane to the Administration Building, disrupting traffic in the process.
Most protestors remained in the building until about 6 p.m., when the building closed. At about 6:20 p.m., the remaining four protestors were arrested and escorted from the building into squad cars by about a dozen officers.
Officers declined comment.
“(Sexual violence is) something we see everyday,” said Christina McPike, an event organizer and a Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and German senior.
“We’re out here acknowledging it’s a problem — if we bring awareness to it, if a few more people know, that’ll do it for me.”
When protestors entered the Administration Building, they continued their protests.
Protestors remained in the building for about two hours and sat on the floor outside the Office of the Registrar and held open discussions within their group.
Journalism sophomore Silver Moore did not participate in the event but supported the efforts.
“When I saw it, I identified with the cause,” Moore said.
McPike also read a prepared statement during the Speak Out. The statement denounced the university’s lack of effort to combat rape, and spoke out about the administration’s response to the alleged rape of an MSU student by two men’s basketball players this past August.
No charges were filed formally against the two players in question.
“We are saddened to learn the two accused rapists are representing our university through our basketball team,” McPike said. “They are not our heroes. … We will not let them be our heroes.”
Denise Maybank, the senior associate vice president for student services, said the university is aware of the magnitude of sexual violence on campus, and mentioned previous revisions to the university’s policy on sexual harassment.
“The university takes very seriously sexual assault, sexual violence and sexual harassment,” she said.
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