More than 60 University of Kentucky students joined a hunger strike this week meant to pressure school leaders to take specific steps to reduce food and housing insecurity among the student body.

The hunger strike was announced Wednesday evening and began in earnest on Thursday, according to Beau Revlett, a senior and philosophy major at UK who joined the strike.

Twenty-one students were originally part of the strike, but that number grew to 50 overnight and had reached 61 students by Thursday afternoon.

Of those 61 people, Revlett said seven — himself included — are doing a complete strike and consuming only water, with exceptions made for certain medical necessities, until UK administrators meet their demands. Other participants are striking in different ways, such as by committing to eat only one meal per day.

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They want UK President Eli Capilouto's administration to commit to taking the following actions:

Establish a Basic Needs Center at the university focused on helping students with housing and food-related challenges

Form a Basic Needs Fund, which would make small financial grants to students

Create a full-time position dedicated to addressing students' food and housing needs

Revlett, who is from Georgetown, said a Basic Needs Center is meant to be a central resource for students who are struggling to cover the costs of adequate food and housing. The full-time staffer would be a point person students could go to for help, and the center could provide case management assistance as well as small grants to UK students in need of help finding and paying for affordable food and housing options.

He noted that the hunger strikers' requests originally were recommendations made by the UK Food and Housing Security Workgroup, which the university hasn't adopted.

Revlett said he and other students decided to launch a hunger strike because they felt they had exhausted their other options. They hope to hear from UK's leaders quickly, he added.

"It would be best for not only the students who are hunger striking ... but more importantly, it would be best for all the students who can't pay for food and housing," he said.

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During his freshman year, Revlett joined a student organization called SSTOP Hunger (Sustainable Solutions to Overcome Poverty), which helped organize the Basic Needs Campaign in January to advocate for creating a Basic Needs Center that can offer better, more centralized resources to the campus community.

The organization has submitted a detailed proposal to university leaders and expect the requested actions could be funded with a budget of as little as $100,000 per year, Revlett said. Food and housing insecurity is a big problem for UK students, he noted.

In a message Capilouto prepared Thursday for UK's campus community, the university's president said he and members of his senior team have been meeting with a group of "passionate, committed students" about food insecurity issues, although they don't agree on every aspect of how to address such challenges.

"But while we may disagree in some of our specific approaches, we will never disrespect the concerns that have been raised or those who have raised them," Capilouto wrote. "Last night, a handful of students began a hunger strike. They say they will remain on the strike until specific steps are taken. We have reached out to them to show our concern for their wellness during this time and to assist them in any way we can."

Capilouto went on to describe various ways in which the university is already working to address students' financial challenges in terms of paying for food and other necessities.

"All of our students — their health, their wellness, and their success — are central to everything that we do. They are why we are here. To that end, students who have immediate needs can access support by contacting our six full-time employees focused on these issues," he wrote.

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He mentioned that the university reduced the cost of its most popular meal plan by about 13 percent this academic year so that each dining hall entry costs under $5. Additionally, it is expanding the operating hours of its food pantry on campus to 48 hours per week and is raising money for an emergency fund that is meant to help address students' immediate needs, among other efforts.

"These next steps are a beginning, not an end. This is a journey we are on — as a campus community and as compassionate, caring citizens in a larger world," Capilouto concluded. "After all, we share the same goal — a commitment to making progress in ways that ensure the health and wellness of our students as we prepare them for lives of meaning and purpose."

Research conducted at UK in fall 2017 showed that 43 percent of the students who were surveyed had experienced some degree of food insecurity in the past year, while 8 percent indicated they had experienced some form of housing insecurity during that time period, according to a September 2018 workgroup presentation.

"Since the launch of the Campaign, students of the Basic Needs Campaign have had two meetings with UK President Eli Capilouto and other administrators," a news release announcing the students' hunger strike said. "In both meetings, administrators declined to support the campaign, and cast doubt on UK faculty-led, peer-reviewed research on student food and housing insecurity at UK."

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Revlett said there are organizations on UK's campus that provide mental health and other resources for students, but none that are specifically focused on food and housing-related missions. And organizations in the Lexington area don't have the capacity to fully support students in need, either.

"I've had experiences where about half a dozen students this year have texted me saying, 'Hey, I'm about to be homeless, can you help connect me with resources?'" he said, adding that community and campus organizations also have referred people to him for help even though he is a student himself.

Morgan Watkins: 502-582-4502; mwatkins@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @morganwatkins26. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/morganw.