by Dan Flynn

A group of Boise State University students were arrested in the Idaho state senate after they disrupted proceedings and staged a sit-in in the state capitol's upper chamber. Debate over a proposed minimum wage law for farm workers served as the impetus for the students' actions.

A BSU student group's involvement in the demonstration and a BSU professor's on-scene endorsement of the demonstration has led to questions about mandatory student activity fee monies going toward illegal demonstrations and the role of the faculty member in the protest.

On February 19th a group of young protestors stormed the Idaho state senate chamber, chanted and yelled, and littered the floor with mounds of flyers. Two BSU students, Tobin Steiskal and Devin Kelly, locked their necks together with two U-shaped bicycle locks in the Senate gallery. Sixteen disrupters were arrested and charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace, among other crimes. All of those arrested were under the age of 23. Many of the protestors had to dragged out of the state capitol building by the police. According to state legislators, the chaotic scene is unprecedented in the history of the deliberative body.

Sponsoring the demonstration was the Idaho Progressive Students Alliance, a registered student organization at Boise State that receives support from the University. Despite the fact that every article covering the event noted the group's sponsorship and that many of those arrested were members of the group, Boise State now denies the group's involvement. Since the organization is funded through student activity fees, many are crying foul that the Idaho Progressive Students Alliance is using that funding to engage in lobbying and politics.

The Idaho Progressive Students Alliance receives $2,500 from student activity fees assessed to undergraduates at Boise State University. Only after negative attention was focused on the protest in the media-specifically regarding student fees funding lobbying efforts-did members of the Idaho Progressive Students Alliance begin to claim that it did not sponsor the event after all. If it is determined that student fees were used to fund lobbying efforts, the group could stand to lose its funding.

Richard Baker, a BSU professor of sociology, reacted with enthusiasm to the actions of the students. "Thank goodness the students from Boise State University did that this morning," he expressed to local reporters. Baker's remarks and coincidental presence at the state capitol while the protest was occurring sparked calls for an investigation into his role in the affair.

Baker, who initially told reporters that he knew about the protest ahead of time, now qualifies his statements regarding his knowledge of the protest. "I wasn't involved in organizing it," Baker explained to Campus Report, "I had just heard rumors about a potential protest." He now maintains that he had no idea that the protest would happen that day. Idaho's Speaker of the House confirmed that Baker was at the state house for reasons unrelated to the protest. "We looked into it and he was here to testify for another bill," noted Speaker Bruce Newcomb. The University released a statement denying Baker's role in the disruption as well. It also denied charges that the protesters may have received academic extra-credit for their activities.

One unintended consequence of the protest has been the delay of the state's budget for higher education. "We're holding the higher education budget until cooler heads prevail," claimed Speaker Newcomb. Legislators fighting for the minimum wage law that the students protested in favor of contended that the disruption of the legislature's business will ultimately hurt their cause.

The day after the protest, the House Agricultural Affairs Committee killed the bill the protestors supported. Other bills that sought to close loopholes that theoretically allow farm workers to be paid less than the federal minimum wage, however, were still being considered. A study conducted by Idaho's state government concluded that less than 1% of the 15,000 to 30,000 farm workers in Idaho earn less than the federal minimum wage. The number of farm workers fluctuates due to seasonal demands.

In a March 6 article in Boise State's student paper, The Arbiter, many of those arrested explained the rationale for their actions. "Passive means of action have been exhausted," they maintained. "Letters have been written and testimony has been given in public hearing after public hearing. They have not listened. The decision to take an alternative means of action to reach out to our legislature was prefaced by years of work on this issue."

In the article, the activists liken themselves to Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau. They cited Woody Guthrie, Eugene Debs, Howard Zinn, Ceasar Chavez, and Noam Chomsky, among others, as individuals who provided inspiration for their actions. The student activists concluded by attacking those who agreed with their message but not with their means. "[T]hey constitute the largest threat to farm workers receiving equity under the law by being guaranteed a minimum wage.... A timeline cannot be set for another human being's justice and liberty," the article declared.

"It is stating the obvious to say the breach of legislative decorum and the subsequent arrests are not activities we endorse," stated Charles Ruch, president Boise State University, in a letter delivered to all state legislators.

Ruch announced that the school will take no action to punish its students who were arrested. He noted that there is already legal action pending against each of them.

Many questioned the timing and site of the protest. At the time of the disruption, the Idaho Senate was holding a memorial service for deceased colleagues. Why this occasion was chosen for the disruption is unclear. Additionally, the Idaho House, and not the Senate, is the legislative body responsible for holding up minimum wage legislation for farm workers, making the protest of the Senate an odd choice.