Record Breaking Arrest

Depicted is the conclusion of one of the largest arrests of college students in American history. Most of the 248 arrested were freshmen in the SEOP program. The students were arrested at 3am for occupying and causing damage to the Illini Union lounges. After a week of orientation, students were unsure of where they would be living in the fall and how much a University of Illinois education would cost them. Much like University housing, the cities of Champaign and Urbana were not prepared to hold the suddenly large amount of SEOP students and temporarily held them in Memorial Stadium as a makeshift jail. All of them were released on bail within the next day by members of the black community in Champaign-Urbana. The school year had not even begun.