Macalester students end occupation of admin building

After a meeting with several Macalester College students this afternoon, President Brian Rosenberg has stuck to his decision not to cut ties with Wells Fargo, the college has confirmed.

Leewana Thomas, a junior in American studies, said their occupation of the administration building has ended. She said students will gather over the weekend to figure out what to do next.

The students had been pressuring the administration to move its business to a community bank. Wells Fargo runs Mac's "P-Card" program, a company credit card that the college uses to pay for products and services. A spokeswoman for the college says it spends about $7 million a year on goods and services using the P-Card.

Students were upset over Wells Fargo's lending practices and house-foreclosure record, saying it wasn't acting in the interests of the community.

Thomas said the campaign began more than a year ago. She said students began a sit-in of the administration building earlier this week because they thought "student voices and community voices weren't being heard."

The administration agreed yesterday to meet with the students, which they did today for about 45 minutes.

Here's a letter the administration sent to students laying out its reasons for sticking with Wells Fargo:

• How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
• How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
• Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students
• U of M starting massive systems upgrade