Students in Austin, Texas; Source: Mary Tuma, The Texas Independent

Inspired by Wall Street protests, students walkout nationwide

By Jon Collins
Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 7:16 am

College campuses across the country organized a nationwide walkout Wednesday to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests that are spreading to several other states, including Minnesota, over the next week.

Occupy Colleges, the student-led version of the ongoing New York City-based protests, continued the theme of economic justice and an end to corporate influence in politics, but added a call for improving equality within higher education.

There was a planned walkout effort at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, according to the Minnesota Daily, although it doesn’t appear to have impacted the operation of the University. Demonstrations also took place in neighboring states, including at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, according to the Badger Herald.

In other parts of the country, students voiced their grievances about rocketing student debt and spiraling job opportunities. Students in New York left class to join the Manhattan Wall Street occupation, the Huffington Post reported. Those New York protests drew tens of thousands of people, according to NPR.

At the University of Texas in Austin, roughly 50 students holding signs and chanting slogans mimicked protests of rising unemployment and corporate welfare in other cities like Boston and Chicago, according to our sister publication the Texas Independent. But the students also focused on higher education issues, like rising tuition costs, program cuts and staff layoffs.

Jonathan Cronin, a lead organizer of the citywide Occupy Austin protest planned Thursday, told the Texas Independent that the Occupy movement is in the spirit of Egypt’s Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring protests, as well as the labor rallies that took place earlier this year in Wisconsin. Cronin said the protests signal a fundamental desire to reevaluate American priorities as it applies to representing the working class, or the “99 percent” — a term which refers to the country’s elite one percent who carry home with them some 24 percent of the national income.

“While the extreme excess and wealth continues to grow, the vast majority of Americans are just trying to make ends meet without being weighed down by increased financial burdens,” said Cronin, who is also a student at Austin Community College. “The protests deliver a sense of empowerment to show we need a political process that benefits us all equally.”

A Minnesota branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement plans to occupy a site in downtown Minneapolis Friday. Organizers said they’re holding planning meetings Thursday. The movement has earned the endorsements of a number of big unions, as well as the support of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison.

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