After President Bush's re-election, a group of friends determined \enough is enough.""
With the Army Recruitment Office on University Square Mall as their target on Thursday, students decided they would not stand to participate in this war on Iraq, said UW-Madison junior Ruth Castel-Barnco.
""Our hopes are to start an antiwar movement that includes local issues,"" she said.
According to Ruth, four students walked into the office at 2:00 p.m. and promptly informed the Army recruiters that they were protesting its presence on campus and refused to leave until it shut down.
The plan was for the group to get arrested, said UW-Madison sophomore and fellow sit-in participant Ashok Kumar. ""I feel like peaceful, nonviolent, non-cooperative protest is the best way.""
The four students arrested were Kumar, Charlie Hoyt, Liz Klainot and Nick Limbeck.
In addition to the students inside the Army Recruitment Office, approximately 20 students surrounded it yelling anti-war chants. At that time, the recruiters shut the doors to the office and covered the windows with white paper.
According to UW-Madison senior Liz Klainot, who participated in the sit-in, the officers immediately called the police and covered the windows.
""Our demand was to shut it down. We want it out of campus. We don't want it there at all,"" she said.
Within an hour, the police arrived and told the students to leave.
""We told them that it was our moral obligation to stay,"" said UW-Madison sophomore Nick Limbeck. ""We just can't stand back and let it happen. We have to be disruptive. And that's really one of the only ways we are going to get our cause heard.""
According to Limbeck, they were handcuffed and taken down to the police station and placed in holding cells until they were let go that afternoon.
Each student was issued citations for trespassing and breach of peace, along with $288 in fines.
According to Castel-Barnco, the students wanted to stress a community focus because they felt the Army Recruitment Office was in their community, recruiting their own friends and peers.
Because many students who go into the Army do so to get financial aid, they would like to place a new office there to fulfill the same function, only safer, Castel-Barnco said. ""We would like that office replaced with something more useful to students, like a financial aid office.""
Citing the student's upcoming meeting, Limbeck said, ""This is the start of pressure on the Army Recruitment Center. This is only the beginning.""
