Amidst widespread student support at the University of Arizona, students Jacob Miller and Evan Lisull will now avoid jail time after being arrested for drawing protest signs in chalk on campus. Though UA President Robert Shelton asked the UA Police Department to drop the charges, the students will still receive disciplinary measures from the University.  Shelton believes the chalking was in violation of the school’s code of conduct. Over the past week, students across campus have been chalking aggressively in opposition to  Miller and Lisull’s arrests.

Lisull had been arrested for writing such comments as "chalk is speech," and "freedom of expression" on the campus sidewalk in response to the arrest of his fellow student Miller, who was taken into custody for his chalk protest of budget cuts on Sept. 24.
   
On the UA campus, Lisull was one of many who had begun organizing support for Miller.  Lisull and other supporters distributed pieces of chalk to the student body and wrote messages to show unity to the officials who had placed him under arrest. Distributed chalk pieces had a note attached reading, “Free Chalk for Free Speech.”
    
Though she had never met either Lisull or Miller, pre-physiology freshman Kayla Crofoot showed her support by following their example and writing her own messages in chalk.

 “Someone was arrested for speaking their mind,” said Crofoot. “In chalk, no less.”She added, “If it bothers [the administration] that bad, it’s called water, it washes it right off.”

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