Purchase College Students Protest Overpriced Tuition

On October 5, 2011, the main campus mall at Purchase College was filled with students who were holding signs to show their support of higher education. The students decided to “occupy” their campus, similar to the New York City Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on recently, in order to show their displeasure with budget cuts that are affecting higher education.
“What we are doing here is for the 99 percent,” said Dan Nation, a student at the school. “It’s time somebody does something to cut the corporate greed. We can’t afford our own education.”
The students are rallying against “overpriced tuition.” This is not the first time that students at Purchase have protested against budget cuts. In fact, they have been protesting annually for the past few years and even have had the support of the school’ s president, Thomas J. Schwarz. However, some students think that these protests really are not accomplishing much.
“I don’t see the point in the ruckus,” said Bob Raymonda, a senior at Purchase College. “We do this every year but these kids don’t show up on election day. They just came [to the rally] to scream and shout.”
Purchase College has had a reputation as being a politically active school, but they were not the only school that had demonstrations during the past few weeks. Many colleges throughout the state of New York have held protests and rallies recently, possibly fueled by the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have inspired international stands against social and economic injustices.
Via TheDailyHarrison.com