Kristin Sampiere/the ithacan YDS CO-CHAIR Kia Kozun uses a two-way radio to communicate with supporters outside the Admission Office while she and six others protested at the sit-in inside Tuesday before media were asked to leave.

Six students protesting the college’s food service provider emerged late Wednesday night from a 34-hour sit-in at the Office of Admission in Job Hall following a private meeting with President Peggy R. Williams.

During the sit-in, the students, senior Laura Deutch, juniors Lis Pardi, Stephanie Cooper and Mark Frank, sophomore Mary Rogers and freshman Grace Ritter, had been calling for a meeting with Williams, demanding that she sign a notice breaking the college’s five-year Sodexho Marriott contract and give the company 90 days to leave campus.

Although this specific demand was not met during the two-hour meeting, junior Mark Frank, treasurer of the Young Democratic Socialists and a sit-in participant, told the crowd of more than 70 cheering supporters that an agreement with the administration had been reached.

The college also released an official statement confirming Frank’s announcement, which said YDS agreed to end the sit-in under the following conditions:

• The administration will conduct thorough research on the issue of private prisons and the relationship of Sodexho Marriott Services to private prisons.

• There will be a well-advertised, college-sponsored forum in early- to mid-February 2001 on the topics mentioned above.

• The president will facilitate the most effective way to have the YDS position presented to the Ithaca College board of trustees by its February meeting.

• President Williams will write a letter to Sodexho Alliance and share student concerns about these issues. A YDS representative will have the opportunity to review a draft of this letter.

• The college will make its decision with regard to signing the YDS proposal on or before March 19, 2001.

• The parties agreed to establish check-in dates to ensure that progress is made on all these points.

The sit-in participants, who went without outside food and water and bathroom facilities during the standoff, delivered separate speeches after exiting the meeting at 10:30 p.m.

The students who occupied the Admission Office spoke after the terms of the agreement were announced.

“It’s the kids in Alumni Hall that went out there and put themselves on the line made the difference,” Deutch said.

Negotiations between both sides hit a snag when 13 people occupied Alumni Hall in an attempt to put pressure on the administration at 4:30 p.m.

National YDS Organizer Daraka Larimore-Hall said that YDS was out of options and needed more power in the situation.

Brian McAree, acting vice president for student affairs and campus life said the President had been on the verge of speaking directly with the students in the Admission Office when Alumni Hall was occupied.

“We then quickly communicated to this group of students [in the admissions office] that ‘you need to get a message to those students over there that there will be no more conversation because who is it that we are going to have a conversation with?’”

After the students left Alumni Hall at 7 p.m. Williams agreed to come to campus to talk with the six students.

Williams and McAree met with the six students in the Admissions Office, and after an hour and a half discussion described by Williams as “respectful” and “civil,” reached an agreement for action on both sides.

“We go back to work, we go back to school, and we go back to work on this [issue],” Williams said. “I’m writing a letter to Sodexho Alliance very soon. I’m sharing [the students’] concerns, I’m not writing a letter sharing their position.” Earlier events

The sit-in was the culmination of YDS’s semester-long push to remove Sodexho Marriott from the college.

The protesters argue that because on-campus residents are required to purchase a meal plan, they are forced to invest in the Corrections Corporation of America — a private prison company that is partially owned by Sodexho Marriott’s parent company, the Paris-based Sodexho Alliance. The protesters criticize CCA for profiting from the imprisonment of others.

Associate Professor Jonathan Laskowitz, sociology, is a local expert on the private prison industry. He said private prisons cut corners on services because there is little government regulation of them.

This week’s drama began with a “Dump Sodexho” rally Tuesday at the Free Speech Rock, which featured speeches by junior YDS Co-chair Lucas Shapiro, Kate Rhee of the national Prison Moratorium Project and Larimore-Hall.

Larimore-Hall announced that seven students had occupied the Admission Office and called upon the students at the rally to march to Job Hall and confront the administration with their complaints against Sodexho.

Meanwhile, the six students and Kia Kozun, former Student Government Association vice president of academics, had entered the Admissions Office around 12:15 p.m. for what they said would be a silent protest. Campus Safety was soon contacted.

While the students said they had originally intended to occupy the Office of the President, Kozun said the door was locked and they switched to Admission instead.

As more than 100 rally attendees marched from the Free Speech Rock to Job Hall, they chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, Sodexho Marriott’s got to go,” and “Hey Sodexho, what do you say? How much money did you make today?”

A reporter for The Ithacan entered the Admission Office at 12:35 p.m., after which Norm Wall, associate director of Campus Safety, locked the office door.

Kozun asked Wall why he had locked the door.

“We are not going to let this place fill up with people,” he said.

At that point, Campus Safety Director Bob Holt and McAree entered the office to talk to the students.

For the first time that day, the sit-in participants pledged to remain in the office until the college agreed to send Sodexho Marriott a 90-day notice to leave campus.

Public Information Director Dave Maley confirmed the fact that the contract includes the 90-day clause, but said during the sit-in the college had no intention of immediately revoking that part of the contract.

“I have said all along that I wasn’t going to sign the ultimatum as long as they occupied the [Admission] Office,” Williams said. “We had made that very clear.”

McAree told the students that he alone could not make the decision to end the contract and that President Williams would not be unavailable to meet with them until Monday or Tuesday of next week. The students refused this offer.

“This isn’t going to committee and get watered down and re-hashed,” Kozun said. “We’re not leaving until our demands are met.”

At 2:40 p.m., the administrators returned from a meeting and requested that everyone present — the sit-in participants and the media — leave with the guarantee that Williams would meet with Kevin Pranis, chairman of the board of the Prison Moratorium Project and the students next week. The students again rejected the offer.

McAree then told the occupants they were violating the college’s Student Conduct Code and would face judicial action if they did not leave immediately.

The student media left after being pressured by campus officials to do so.

At about 5:30 p.m. the lights were turned off in the office and the curtains were closed, as the seven students prepared to stay the night. Larimore-Hall said the students inside told him they were given the option to stay the night without any outside food or water. If anyone left the office, they would not be allowed back in, the students said. There were no bathrooms available to the students.

Campus Safety officers spent the night in the room with the students.

About 20 supporters slept in the lobby, and Campus Safety announced Wednesday morning that the hallway had to be cleared so business could be conducted as usual by 7 a.m.

A rally began around noon as Shapiro read international letters of support for the sit-in.

The Service Employees International Union, Working Families Party, Young Socialists of France, and the Progressive Student Network all offered their full support of the students’ protest.

Five hundred Ithaca College students also signed a petition Wednesday opposing Sodexho.

As Shaprio read the letters at the rally, the students occupying the office stood up and put their coats on.

Minutes later, Larimore-Hall called for students to follow him to the loading dock door at the back of the office and the students within the office ran out of the reception area to find their way to the loading dock door. There, students banged on the door and screamed, “Let us in.”

Kozun fell out another door to the office with Wall in front of her and McGreevey standing behind her. They then shut the door, according to Kozun and other witnesses.

Kozun claimed that she was assaulted by college officials at this time. The protesters contacted the National Lawyers Guild of New York City, which helped locate two Ithaca attorneys who agreed to consult with the students regarding these claims.

Maley said the Guild contacted the college Wednesday, alleging that several students had been assaulted by college officials during the various demonstrations.

“No one was assaulted by any Ithaca College official during the course of the demonstrations or sit-ins,” Maley said.

Students will hold another anti-Sodexho rally today at noon at the Free Speech Rock.