8 Students Arrested in SDSU Wall Vigil : Education: President Day agrees to allow part of graffiti and artwork, created in protest over planned budget cuts, to remain.

Eight San Diego State University students were arrested early Wednesday for refusing to give up their guard over a construction fence covered with protest artwork and graffiti.

The students were arrested on the first night of a planned round-the-clock vigil, scheduled to last until graduation Sunday and designed to keep university President Thomas Day from having the fence painted over.

After meeting with his top administrators later Wednesday, Day called in several protesters and struck a deal in which the west side of the wall, considered to have the best art, will remain untouched, university spokesman Rick Moore said.

The rest of the 450-foot-long wall, which Day finds ugly and offensive, is to be painted over this morning. Students will then be allowed to paint the fence again, with Day reserving the right to censor the art.

The wall, actually a plywood fence surrounding a construction site on campus, became a canvas for protest artwork and slogans during a student uprising that began in April. Students and faculty members organized rallies and marches in protest of proposed budget cuts at the university, which are the result of the state deficit and which would result in the layoff of hundreds of teachers and cancel more than 500 classes this fall.

Day originally planned to paint the entire wall in preparation for commencement, saying it “does not look very clean institutionally.”

Students began their vigil Tuesday, bringing sleeping bags and food for the night. By 6 p.m., Day had already asked them to leave.

According to Moore, students were warned several times that they would be arrested if they stayed. At midnight, an administrator in phone contact with Day, who was at home, told the students part of the wall could be left untouched for graduation. But “that didn’t seem to make it for them, either,” Moore said.

“We wanted the whole wall saved,” said Markes Rodgers, one of those arrested. The students began putting together a counteroffer, but, by 3 a.m., the protesters remaining at the wall were arrested by campus police, with the assistance of about a dozen San Diego police officers. Other protesters had moved to the Aztec Center, open 24 hours during finals week, or onto a walkway near the wall.

Arrested on the misdemeanor charge of obstructing the routine operations of a campus were Kimberly Byrd, 26, of Riverside; Celeste Drake, 24, of El Cajon; Geoffery Johnson, 28, of San Diego; Steven Langfus, 21, of San Diego; Charles Levy, 22, of Santa Monica; Markes Rodgers, 24, of La Mesa; Joseph Rogers, 21, of San Diego, and Christopher Shankle, 22, of Raleigh, N. C. All are SDSU students, Moore said.

“We don’t make a practice of allowing people to stay on campus,” Moore said, explaining the reasoning behind the arrests. “That’s not something we wanted to get started.”

The arrested students were photographed for school records and loaded into a paddy wagon, Rodgers said. The men were taken to the downtown County Jail and booked. They spent about five hours being moved from one jail cell to another but were not separated. The were released about 8:30 a.m. The women were taken to the Las Colinas jail in Santee and later released.

Student organizer Merek Findling, 19, a sophomore, said a counteroffer presented to Day after the arrests asked that students be allowed to censor the wall themselves, and that the students who were arrested avoid any kind of academic punishment, such as probation or expulsion. The status of the students’ proposal is unclear. Day could not be reached for comment.

An attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union was scheduled to meet with the students Wednesday night “to explore the situation,” said Betty Wheeler, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties.

Hours after the arrests, university workers began painting the fence. Deborah Katz watched as the workers sprayed dark brown paint over the student artwork and graffiti.

“Nobody was doing anything,” the 19-year-old sophomore said. “I couldn’t handle it. I said, ‘This can’t continue,’ and me and (another student) locked arms and got against the wall.”

Katz said she closed her eyes and trembled with fright as campus police threatened to arrest her.

She opened her eyes in time to see the first four students duck under the police tape marking off the area and join her against the wall. The painters changed to rollers to avoid spraying them. Minutes later, about 30 students were blocking the way, and the painters gave up.

Meanwhile, the eight students who were arrested earlier arrived, fully expecting to find the wall completely painted over.

“It made what we did and got arrested for all worthwhile,” said Rodgers, his eyes red from lack of sleep.