What’s next for Occupy PSU?

Approximately 500 students, faculty, staff and community members rallied in the South Park Blocks against economic injustice in higher education on Nov. 16, 2011. They marched through downtown shouting cries of “Schools for students, not for profits,” and “Whose school? Our school.” That afternoon, close to 100 individuals stood in the rain for hours determining basic procedures of the general assembly, such as consensus versus majority rules on passing issues. The following week, close to 40 concerned PSU affiliates sat on the stage in Smith Memorial Student Union’s North Park room, setting agendas and demand points.

Three months later, Occupy PSU is a much smaller group. But it’s still rallying behind the cause for affordable higher education. “Every movement has its lulls and spikes; we’re in a lull,” said Grant Booth, a math major, writer for the Rearguard and active member of the student International Socialist Organization.

Despite the current lull in participation, Occupy PSU is turning its collective head toward the problem of rising student debt. At the Feb. 21 Public Education for Portland Rally, sponsored by the Associated Students of Portland State University, the Occupy PSU group will offer an “Arrested by Debt” photo booth on the South Park Blocks and will participate in a forum following the rally at 3 p.m. on the third floor of SMSU.

On March 1, the Occupy Colleges movement is calling for a national day of action with a student march on education. In solidarity, Occupy PSU is organizing the “Carnival of Debt Resistance,” including an information table and several different activities in the park blocks, weather permitting.

Both the Feb. 21 and March 1 events will focus around a core tenet of Occupy PSU: bail out students, not banks. Other demands of the movement include: increasing quality in higher education, equitable pay for faculty and staff, affordable tuition, providing public funding and removing barriers for immigrants and minorities.

What continues to drive the Occupy PSU movement is the increasing pressure on students and escalating costs of getting a college degree. “People are very pissed off. Education is essential to having an even halfway-decent life, and yet they can be in debt their whole life pursing that,” said Rhett Mutchler, communication major and editor-in-chief at the Rearguard.

Additionally, the group is inspired about the potential to actually affect tangible change. On a nationwide scale, a movement can have ideas, but at the local level, the students recognize it is realistic to propose—and achieve—specific goals.

Though their numbers are small, the core group feels they are laying the groundwork for an anticipated resurgence of involvement across the board, from the local-student level to the national Occupy movement. The group hopes the upcoming events will instigate a resurgence of interest.

Christina Kane, social science major and member of the International Socialist Organization, explained how past social movements have been deeply rooted in student movements. Currently, unified student groups are meeting in mass marches and protests in Chile, Quebec, London and many other cities across the globe. One of the more prominent student movements is springing up in California as students from University of California-Davis and other California schools, rally behind a current ballot initiative that proposes to fund free public college education for California residents.

There were a couple of new and familiar faces at the Feb. 1 Occupy PSU meeting: Cameron Whitten, a 20-year-old college student running for Portland mayor, is heavily involved with Occupy Portland; though not a regular attendee of the Occupy PSU meetings, his platform for the mayoral candidacy aligns with the Occupy PSU cause.

Semir Said was one of the new faces present at the meeting. Said is a community organizer with the nonprofit organization We Are Oregon. According to its website, We Are Oregon was founded by local Service Employees International Union groups 49 and 503, and focuses on issues such as foreclosure, unemployment, food security and wage theft.

Occupy PSU has heard from graduate students and research assistants who are concerned with being overworked and underpaid. We Are Oregon offers training on how to fight for workers’ rights, and it hopes to coordinate with Occupy PSU to mobilize on this point of contention in the future.

For now, Occupy PSU continues to stand its ground, fighting for accessible, affordable and equitable higher education.