FAU Students Stage Sit-In To Protest Stadium Deal With For-Profit Prison Operator

Some members of the Florida Atlantic University student body are not very happy about the fact that their school has agreed to sell the naming rights to its on-campus stadium to GEO Group, a slimy corporation that operates detention centers and for-profit prisons across the globe. On Monday, a group of FAU students calling themselves the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition occupied the university president's office and demanded that the deal with GEO Group be reconsidered. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Gonzalo Vizcardo, a student and spokesman for a group calling itself the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition, said the students and other protesters had rallied on the campus Monday morning, then marched to the office of President Mary Jane Saunders to demand that she speak to the group about the naming deal. He said Ms. Saunders did not come out of her office, so about 50 protesters staged a sit-in.

After about two hours, he said, "she came out and offered to meet with us on Friday at noon for an hour to discuss the stadium-name deal."

Here's a video of the university president finally coming out of her office to speak to the students. It's nothing too exciting, although things do get a tad bit testy at the end:

Once again, here's a handy list of all the shitty things GEO Group has been accused of doing.

[ Chronicle]

Previously: FAU Stadium's New Prison Sponsor Is Frantically Trying To Wipe Abuse Allegations From Wikipedia