It's an exciting and hopeful time for our country.
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| An Occupy Sacramento photo by uvw916a on Flickr. |
I just wrote a posting on another blog today about the Coffee Party Movement and also touched on the Occupy Movement, which started as Occupy Wall Street.
This got me thinking. I was curious to see if nontraditional students are also joining in the Occupy movement or are interested in fixing our government.
I ran across some articles about just that. Students are concerned about their rising costs, student loans, the future of the country, their children's future and much more.
This quote is from the Ball State Daily News.
"Nontraditional Ball State student and women and gender studies major Nina Monstwillo walked in the rain alongside the protesters, her two children by her side wearing raincoats. She said she was protesting in Muncie because she couldn't get to New York City.
'I'm hoping to provide my children with the chance to live the American dream,' she said. 'This is a chance for everyone to speak up.'"
And here is a quote from an article talking about the Occupy Omaha movement:
"We're not anti-America, we're not anti-capitalist," said Tony Roller, a full time student who also works at a call center. Just getting a job isn't that simple, he said. "There are people graduating with huge debt and advanced degrees who have to take entry level jobs."
Other people express concern about low-income people being forced to join the military in order to go to school. Penn graduate students have released a statement addressing this concern and others.
For instance, they wonder about the disparity between publisc and private universities, less opportunities for education among young people, and severe cuts in university funding and massive student debt.
Occupy Philadelphia has both teachers and students as members. This exerpt is from the Grad Student statement.
"At City Hall, learning is viewed not as a commodity that can be bought but as a community resource to be shared. This is visible in the library and book exchange, as well as the proliferation of non-traditional courses, which include a people’s law school, lessons on urban commoning, and anti-racism seminars, just to name a few. Moreover, the movement’s decision-making process offers a practical demonstration of the virtues of open, democratic debate."
And this is just the beginning. Occupy groups are forming across the country, and many students of all ages, including nontraditional students, are joining in.
There was a Students Occupy March in Boston. Here is a photo from that:
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| Photo by Lauren Metter at DigBoston.com |
Is there an Occupy group at your school? Leave your group information as a comment here.
Sources:
Occupy Muncie draws crowd of more than 100 people
Occupy Wall Street protests reach downtown Omaha
Metro - more higher education support for OccupyPhilly.
Students Occupy Boston by Lauren Metter.
Another blog of interest (one I just posted at my Betsyanne Moon and Willow Tree blog) is here:
Annabelle Park, the Coffee Party, and the Occupy Movement
Representatives from the Coffee Party will be talking face to face with representatives about fixing our broken governments, gridlock in Congress, and a lot more tomorrow (Monday). I and many others will be following with much interest.
Later!
Betsyanne
Former Nontraditional Student
Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter