Opinion: Board meeting arrests do not hinder the cause

Within four days, the video had nearly 3,500 views. That is, the video of four students being arrested on Friday morning had 3,500 views within just a few days. Not to mention the story was on the front page of The Post and was in the “Featured” section of The New Political. Needless to say, the event has been gaining attention.This is not without reason. The four female students were arrested for protesting tuition hikes during a Board of Trustees meeting. What started as a large group of students from the Ohio University Student Union quickly turned to the four women sitting on the floor with a large sign which read “Education is not a commodity, students are not customers.” The students demanded a cap on salaries of $100,000 or more, and said they would not leave until this promise was made. Protestors were warned several times previous to being arrested that they were disturbing a lawful meeting and would be arrested if they did not cease their actions. Lo and behold, the protestors did not stop and they were arrested, because Ohio Revised Code 2917.12 apparently supersedes first amendment rights.However, the arrests helped the cause rather than hinder it. Because the protestors were arrested, they received much more attention for their actions than they may have otherwise. By the time the protestors were taken away, the meeting had stopped and the board members had left. Without the arrest, the protestors would have just been some students sitting in a meeting room chanting. With the arrest, the students were shown as brave leaders who valiantly sacrificed themselves for the cause. Rather than being a punishment or a deterrent, the arrests simply made more of a hero out of the protestors. This is not to say that this view of the protestors is unwarranted; the cause they are fighting for is reasonable and right. Regardless, arresting the students only strengthened the idea that the Board of Trustees is not willing to be cooperative and listen, and that these protestors are fighting ruthlessly for students across campus. If the Board of Trustees and other OU administrators were hoping to weaken the protest or deter future protests, arresting and charging protestors was not a good move to make.The attention from the arrests then spread like wildfire. Coverage of the event was viewed, shared, “liked,” tweeted and commented on by students of all different majors across campus, along with several articles released and still being released about the issue.  Furthermore, within days of being arrested, over $1000 was raised through donations from other students to bail the protestors out of jail. And that’s not all. There is also a plan in the works to stage a rally and march on Thursday at 4:30. The rally will be to show support for the students who stood up during the meeting, and ask that the arrested students have their charges dismissed. In short, attention, and the responses, are not lacking.With people across campus now tuning in, the arrests did not work to hinder the cause in the slightest. In fact, the result was just the opposite. Because the Board of Trustees had students arrested, the Ohio University Student Union and its cause gained much more recognition and appreciation. With four handcuffs quickly turning into thousands watching, it is obvious that administrators only strengthened support for the protest.