By noon, the temperature had hit 76 degrees. Students lounged on the Quad, reading, eating lunch and languidly tossing around a Frisbee. Several prospective freshmen sat on benches doing campus interviews. And, right under the Brookings Arch, a rambunctious group of students in homemade t-shirts had taken over the Admissions Office and were leaning out the window chanting: “What do we want? A living wage! When do we want it? Now!”

Twenty minutes earlier, a small group of students staked out an office in a usually sedate corner of Brookings. Members of the Student Worker Alliance and other interested students were staging a sit-in, and they promised not to leave until Washington University agreed to pay its contract workers a “living wage.” By 12:30 p.m., the number of protesters had doubled to about 30.

Inside the office, the students were cheerfully determined and-to use a middle-school term-totally hyper. One protester recognized me when I walked in with my notebook and yelled, “Let’s hear it for our Student Life reporter Rachel Streitfeld!” The crowd gave me a gusty cheer.

But the joviality didn’t hamper the group’s organization. When a television crew from Channel 5 showed up to cover the sit-in, the entire crowd hurried into formation: climbing up on each others’ shoulders and jamming themselves up against the windows-right underneath carefully-placed signs reading “Wrighton is Wrong” and “Workers Can’t Eat Prestige.” The “Living Wage Now” slogans on their t-shirts plainly visible, the students broke into a lively chant, pumping their fists for emphasis.

“What’s outrageous? Wash U’s wages!

“What’s disgusting? Union busting!”

Traffic in Admissions had slowed to a standstill, but receptionist Delise Le Pool was enjoying the ruckus.

“I think what they’re doing is wonderful,” Le Pool said. “They give me my space.”

“Besides, what can I do, girl?” she asked me, laughing and gesturing to the magazine she’d been reading because of the work slowdown.

During one chant, the phone rang and Le Pool tried unsuccessfully to speak with the caller.

“Quiet down, guys,” said one student. “Delise is on the phone.”

The crowd was too pumped to quiet down enough for the phone call, but that didn’t stop Delise from having a great time. She joked that the protesters were making her day an easy one.

Students were even in good spirits about the prospect of making the Admissions Office a temporary home.

“I think I’ll probably stay here all night if that’s what it takes,” said senior Rachel Mercer.

Though not a member of SWA, Mercer said she’d been following the group’s 15-month effort to secure a “living wage” for the University’s contracted workers.

“I’m just here because I heard about it and I thought it was a worthwhile cause and I wanted to support it,” she said.

Other protesters were more hardcore, toting overnight bags and scheduling food runs.

Sophomore Joe Thomas, a member of SWA, said the group would stake out the Admissions Office “until we graduate or we don’t.”

Out in the Quad, some prospective freshmen took notice of the action. Sarah Balke of Atlanta, GA, said the sit-in had caught her eye-even though she hadn’t figured out who was protesting against whom or what they wanted.

“It sparks my interest,” Balke said. “I want to know what’s going on.”

When I told her what SWA was protesting, she was impressed that students were “getting involved,” though she said the living wage issue wouldn’t deter her from attending the University.

“I wouldn’t base my decision on whether to come here on this,” she said.

Not if SWA has anything to do with it.

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