Occupy Wall Street Movement Airs Frustration with American Higher Education
Several publications, including The Washington Times, have published lists of the “official” demands that Occupy Wall Street protesters are making. Oddly, the page that seems to be the group’s “official website” doesn’t have any such list, at least not on the day when we checked. Maybe the members of the group had taken it down temporarily so they could add more demands to it.
The “official” list that is published in The Washington Times contains a lot of demands. According to this version, the protestors want a guaranteed living wage for every American, free universal health care for everybody, unrestricted U.S. borders, trillions of dollars to rebuild roads and replant forests, and lots of other rather extreme stuff. But there is just one educational demand, which is voiced in the simplest words:
Demand four: Free College Education
That’s quite a demand. Pretty hard to wrap your head around it, actually. Is it a demand that is being voiced by thousands of grass-roots activists, or one that was cooked up by two people somewhere late at night? Hard to tell. But in either case, it could be taken as another sign that students are becoming increasingly frustrated about the absurdly high cost of getting an education in America.
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1 response so far
1 Milan Moravec // Nov 14, 2011 at 6:58 PM
They said such faculty reforms “would not be healthy for UC”. Exodus of faculty, administrators? Who can afford them and where would they go?
We agree it is far from the ideal situation, but it is in the best interests of the university system & the state to stop cost increases. UC cannot expect to do business as usual: raising tuition; granting pay raises & huge bonuses during a weak economy that has sapped state revenues & individual Californians’ income.
There is no question the necessary realignments with economic reality are painful. Regent Chairwoman Lansing can bridge the public trust gap with reassurances that salaries & costs reflect California’s ability to pay. The sky above UC will not fall when Chancellor Birgeneau is ousted.
Opinions? Email the UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu
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