Student Sit-In at Ohio State Forced to End After Threats of Arrest and Expulsion

A student protest at Ohio State University ended Wednesday night after threats of expulsion and arrest, reports local NBC4 Columbus. Students from around a dozen different campus groups, using the hashtag #ReclaimOSU and #NoEndsNow, had gathered in the university's Bricker Hall with a list of demands for the school's administration, including transparency regarding the school's investments and a plan to address student concerns about campus diversity and sexual assault, reports NBC4.

Students occupying Bricker Hall "planned to stay inside the building all night," reported NBC4, but around midnight they were apparently forced to disperse under threats of arrest and disciplinary action from the school.

An official statement released to NBC4 from the university said, "After repeated discussions and warnings, the group chose to disperse on their own volition. They were not removed." But, in a video shared with NBC4 from one of the student activists, Ohio State Senior Vice President Jay Kasey can be heard saying "our police officers will physically pick you up and take you to a paddy wagon and take you to be arrested."

On social media, OSU students and alumni shared their frustration with the university's handling of what was, by all accounts, a peaceful student protest. 

At the same time that student activists were holding a protest on Ohio State's campus, students at Duke University were continuing a multiday occupation of a campus building after the university's executive vice president, Tallman Trask, reportedly hit a campus parking attendant with his car and then called her a racial slur.