It was just past noon, on April 16, when nine students broke through the lines of demonstrators at the University of Montana in Missoula and moved into the school’s administration building.

Among the students was UW senior Rod Palmquist, 22, and UW alumna Michele Frix, 22, who acted as the students’ legal observer.

Moving past bewildered secretaries and office assistants, the students walked into the inner office of University of Montana’s President George Dennison and sat on the floor.

They were always courteous and respectful, school administrators said, but when asked to leave, the group’s response was an unequivocal “No.”

The university had them arrested.

The students were trying to encourage the school to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), ensuring that UM apparel, or Griz Gear, wouldn’t be manufactured in sweatshops.

Forty-two universities around the country including the UW have adopted the program, said April Nishimura, the UW’s delegate to United Students Against Sweatshops and a member of the UW’s Student Labor Action Project (SLAP).

However, the program has yet to receive a stamp of approval from the Department of Justice, which makes the process “kind of a waiting game,” Nishimura said.

Palmquist, another SLAP member, believes that more schools signing the agreement would encourage the government agency to accept the program.

“It would lead to collaboration and be a big push forward,” Palmquist said. “It would add momentum to having more universities sign. It’s like a show of good faith.”

Palmquist journeyed to Missoula to join student protesters from UM’s Students for Economic and Social Justice group as a show of solidarity for factory workers. But, for him, it was also a matter of helping his friends.

“We wanted to support their group,” he said. “And it ended up becoming a sit-in. No one wanted to get arrested.”

But as the nine students pushed for school officials to sign a letter of commitment to the DSP, it became increasingly clear that arrests were more likely than an agreement.

As school administrators, legal advisers and police arrived on the scene, they told the students they weren’t going to sign the letter without the Department of Justice’s approval. Meanwhile, Dennison was out of the country.

“We aren’t going to participate until it’s been cleared,” said David Aronofsky, UM’s legal council. “[The DSP] is an interesting idea, but it has anti-trust issues written all over it. And we’re just not going to mess with that. It’s a checkbook decision — and an easy one.”

The decision to arrest, however, was not as clear-cut, he said.

“We repeatedly asked them to leave,” Aronofsky said. “We explained the legal consequences of what they were doing. We explained that it violated the Student Conduct Code. Even after we agreed to another meeting, they didn’t want to go.”

After nearly seven hours of negotiations, school administrators decided to arrest the nine students, including Palmquist. They were charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. The charges carry maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine, one year in jail, or both, and a $500 fine, six months in jail or both, respectively.

As a legal observer for the group, Frix wasn’t charged with a crime.

“It’s really unfortunate that they chose to arrest students who were standing up for what they believe in,” Palmquist said. “When we went to UW President Emmert and asked him to sign on to the DSP, he eventually listened. He showed a good example.”

Still, in meetings that followed the protests, UM administrators remained hesitant to align with the program.

“Until the issues surrounding the [Designated Suppliers Program] are resolved, the University will not sign onto the DSP,” Dennison said in a meeting on Wednesday. “I’m not here to debate.”

But to Kendra Kallevig, a UM senior who was at the meeting and one of the nine students arrested, the administrators didn’t even give the students a chance to explain their case.

“The meeting lasted about seven minutes,” she said. “It was ridiculous. Dennison basically said the only reason he was there was because someone else scheduled it for him. And their answer was a resounding ‘no’ on all counts.”

The UM’s dean of students, Charles Couture, hasn’t yet decided how the school will punish the group of protesters. But for UM students with discipline records prior to the protest, Couture said he would “recommend suspension for up to one year.”

Upon being informed of Couture’s recommendation, Kallevig was shocked.

“I’m the only one of us that has a previous discipline record,” she said with a heavy breath. “That — that has to be me. I was supposed to graduate.”

No matter the consquences, Kallevig said the demonstration and arrests were worth it.

“We can’t be threatened into silence by our university,” she said. “We were demonstrating our commitment — and our power over the university by standing up for the workers and people who can’t stand up for themselves.”

Mark Page from The Montana Kaiman, and Kim Briggeman from The Missoulian contributed to this story.