Occupy Graduation: Reject Student Debt!
Posted 12 years ago on June 7, 2012, 7:55 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
As student debt surpasses trillion dollar mark, students express frustration with not so bright future ahead of them
NEW YORK, NY (June 5, 2012) - Burdened by debt and silenced by the media, graduating students will exeunt the college stage with a silent, but firm expression of their angst and frustration. Some students will wear blow up ball-and-chain shackles to symbolize their financial distress, while others will write the amount of college loans they owe on top of their caps at their graduation ceremonies.
On April 25, 2012, the debt of American students surpassed the trillion-dollar mark. It is for this reason that students at small and large colleges and universities across the nation will bear symbolic props and statements that reflects what lays ahead for them. Institutions signed up to participate in this nationwide demonstration include, George Washington University (graduation ceremony - Thursday, May 17), CU Boulder (Friday, May 11), and the University of North Carolina (Sunday, May 13), where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will conduct the commencement speech honors. We have recently added the University of Washington and Ohio University (Saturday, June 9), and, Oregon State University (Sunday, June 17). We expect many more schools to sign up in the coming weeks.
Occupy Graduation was an idea formed by the collective voices and initiatives of OccupyWallSt.org, Occupy Colleges, Occupy Student Debt, Occupy Together, Ben Cohen, from Ben and Jerry’s ice cream; “Default: The Student Loan Documentary,” Backbone Campaign, EDU Debtors Union, Forgive Student Loan Debt and Wear Your Debt.
Occupy Graduation urges students to participate. Signing up is as easy as organizing a group of 10 or more students and then visiting the Occupy Graduation website at http://occupygraduation.org/. Please note, this demonstration is a way to express student frustration without destroying graduation or disrespecting the meaning of this event for classmates and parents.
Organizing students interested in more ideas on how to effectively and respectfully be “heard” on graduation are encouraged to visit the website. In addition, students interested in purchasing the staple ball-and-chain props, but unable to do so for financial reasons, can contact Occupy Graduation for a reduced rate.
Press Contacts:
Natalia Abrams, Occupy Colleges
(323) 642-8102 info@occupycolleges.org
Kyle McCarthy, Occupy Student Debt
(415) 483-9191 Kyle@OccupyStudentDebt.org
You're looking at the symptom and not the cause. The debt is taken on willingly (but foolishly) to pay ever increasing tuition costs. What is driving those costs? Could professors teach 4 sections instead of 3? What are the salaries of the staff? Warren at Harvard gets over $400K to teach. Is that kind of 1%er salary normal remuneration at Harvard or an aberration? Are money loosing interscholastic sports programs necessary? Universities need to look at expenses if costs are too high.
Tuitions at private universities have gone up beyond reason and they are being paid by children making poor adult decisions. The banks may be facilitating the problem, but for a cause you have to look at reforming the universities.
The article above states that the institutions listed are participating in a nationwide demonstration. That is certainly ironic, the institutions, especially the private ones, are the real cause of the problem. They took your money, now they want to help you? How, with symbolism? How about a refund? That would seem to be more reasonable then asking for a third party to forgive loans.
Why hasn't anyone ever gone after the big expensive schools?
How about just making better choices rather than stealing? Sociology and $100k in debt is a bad combination. See, was that so hard?
My favorite was the girl featured in a New York Times piece a while ago. $97K in debt, to go to NYU. Her stated purpose in going to NYU, not a state school, was to get a good job, but she majored in comparative religion and women's studies.
There's a signal for people willing to listen. Too much easy money being spent indiscriminately has caused tuition inflation and increasing debt. The debt is increasingly hard to pay back because of the increasing amounts and because the courses of study have limited economic returns. In finance, people would say that many things now simply dont produce a return on that much investment.
So, people should reconsider what they're doing. Think before you borrow. Think about economic opportunity and the value of what you study. Not hard stuff. Any boob at this point should know that a Celtic Studies major and debt don't mix.
But liberals see the problem and rather than adjust, they want to double down and throw even more money at it. That just makes for more inflation and more poor decisions.
There's nothing wrong that better choice can't fix.
The post up above has the right idea, the schools that should be looked at, not the banks in this one. The kids are just making dumb decisions, sorry but you have to pay for your own mistakes. Something wrong in the colleges and universities when tuitions go up faster then health care costs.
your just realizing ya don't have a future ahead of you.........where have you been?
I'll be marching with the sign that says "I don't care about my credit score." What a joke, our entire worth wrapped up in our ability to responsibly manage debt. Who cares? Yawn.
What is the desired outcome of these demonstrations? Can someone please elaborate? Should the debt be forgiven, etc?
I agree with votasaurus: "Awareness for starters."
I think a lot of the anger is at the "system". Having the debt forgiven, as you say, is a complicated option that wouldn't really fix the problem. It's a broken system that needs to be fixed into one that works.
Awareness for starters. Media attention.
Nationalize all banks... as the debt has largely been forgiven for the too big to fail banks, (the Fed Resrv making purchases of bad mortgage bundles through Maiden Lane I, II, III emergency programs, and then selling these bad mortgages for pennies on the dollar) thus also, student loan defaults should be forgiven or the debt lowered to pennies on the dollar.
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“The public be suckered” is the status quo. http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/RHandRD.html
Venal journalism panders. http://occupywallst.org/forum/condemn-venal-journalism-for-severely-fooling-the-/
Higher education panders. http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/citaa.html
The younger you are, the more riled you should be. The recent debt/GDP jump is well above half of that for WW2. See here: http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/debtGDP_whys.gif
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