'This doesn't feel like love': SPU students sit-in for LGBTQ equality on campus
The end-of-the-quarter crunch is looking a little different for some students at Seattle Pacific University.
They're juggling classes, homework, campus jobs... and now, a sit-in outside the interim-president's office.
Students organized the sit-in because of the board of trustees' decision to reaffirm the school's employee lifestyle expectation policy, which bans the hiring of LGBTQ employees.
The board of trustees says the policy was made to align with the beliefs of the school's founding denomination, the Free Methodist Church USA.
A statement on behalf of the board also says the decision reflects the school's identity as an evangelical institution of faith.
But students at SPU are pushing back. Inside Demaray Hall, students have settled in for the long haul, and say they'll keep fighting until the policy is overturned.
Soundside Producer Noel Gasca went to SPU's campus to check out the sit-in and talk to students.
Host Libby Denkmann also talked to Binghamton University Professor Adam Laats about the deep-rooted connection between Christianity and the United States' educational institutions.