Million Student March Movement Aims to Make College Tuition

The country is the richest in the world, yet students must take on debt that cripples them financially to get a university education.

Rowan University students rallied on Thursday in unity with similar protests on campuses nationwide in demand of tuition-free education and other student-related initiatives.

The organization decries that this is an “urgent crisis” and that “established politicians on both sides are failing to take action”.

Thousands of students have over the years waived picket signs and chanted slogans in support of raising minimum wages for low-income workers, learning valuable lessons of organizing that they are now applying to their own cause.

Saddled with debt that can sometimes run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, many college graduates struggle to make payments amid an ailing economy and job market.

Many black university students taking part in Thursday’s event included concerns about racial issues on the Rowan campus and college campuses throughout the country – most notably at the University of Missouri, which saw the resignation of its president and chancellor recently after several racially-charged incidents.

On the organizers’ website, studentmarch.org, the University of New Orleans is listed as the only college or university in Louisiana to participate.

Students dealing with mounting loans have been a big focus of candidates battling for the White House.

Known as the Million Student March, the demonstrations at schools from MA to Hawaii were inspired by remarks Vermont Sen. “Further, while top administrators take home six and seven figure salaries, many campus workers are paid poverty wages and are forced to rely on federal and local assistance”.

The debt “was constantly above $40,000, constantly above $60,000”, Butts says.

“We are people of all colors, genders, and sexual orientation, and we are united to fight for education as a human right”, the movement’s statement reads. It’s a message heard loud and clear with social media seeing the hashtag, #millionstudentmarch.

“Education is the most powerful weapon”, Pipersburg told the crowd through a megaphone, yet tuition costs and student debt are putting it out of reach for many, he said.