Three Washington University students were arrested Thursday at an Occupy St. Louis protest downtown.

The three students, seniors Adam Hasz and Molly Gott, and sophomore Kait Mauro, were arrested by the Martin Luther King Bridge.

The students participated in the march from Kiener Plaza to the bridge as part of a national day of action recognized by the entire Occupy movement. The Post-Dispatch reported that 800 people marched and 14 were arrested.

Upon arriving at the bridge, Hasz said that protesters were given the option to either step back or to be arrested.

Hasz, Gott and Mauro chose to stay put, and were put under arrest.

“The people who were willing to take the rap stood forward and the others stood back,” Hasz said.“It means that I am fully committed to the ideas of the occupy movement and making it my own. The arrest symbolized my personal commitment.”

Hasz and Mauro hope to inform the greater University community to the merits of the Occupy movement through their protests.

They say, in comparison to schools like University of California at Berkeley, few students at Washington University are getting involved in the Occupy movement.

“For me it’s really about the fact that everyone here has privilege… it’s not in my experience a place that fosters action,” Mauro said. “We spend so much time talking about really good questions but at a certain point it becomes an excuse to not take action, but i think there has to be a balance of both in the culture.”