University of Virginia Students Starve Themselves In Campaign For Living Wage

Jonathan Bryan, a senior at the University of Virginia, stopped eating on Feb. 17. Three days later, he got strep throat. The doctors drew blood, and gave him antibiotics, but he wouldn't take a bite. By the 10th day, he "could barely stand," he says, and the doctor said he had to eat "to function."

But at least a dozen or so students are still refusing food, as the university hunger strike entered its 13th day on Wednesday. Bryan, who is also the vice president of the campus chapter of the NAACP, was about to race to a rally when he spoke to AOL Jobs by phone.

"The university is in a state of protest," he says. The school's Living Wage campaign is demanding the university increase the minimum wage of their employees and contractors to $13 an hour, or $27,000 a year for a 40-hour workweek.