From #OccupyWallStreet to #OccupyCampus?

On Wednesday, over ten thousand of people rallied in downtown Manhattan at the #OccupyWallStreet protests now in their third week. On campuses across the country, students walked out of class in solidarity with the occupiers.

It is not hard to tell that young people, including college students and recent graduates, are upset. We are upset that as we graduate we must struggle to find a job. We are angry with the bankers for getting richer after destroying the economy. And we are furious that money from those same bankers and other corporations is stopping our politicians from making the rich pay their fair share.

The colleges where many of us spend at least four years of our lives, and a huge sum of money, are an important actor in this system themselves. Unfortunately they continue to do little to make the changes that would support their students and future generations. Sometimes they are even working alongside the bankers and corporate interest.

Colleges in the U.S. are big business. They control major amounts of money including about $350 billion in endowments and over $100 billion in annual spending. It is time for colleges to begin thinking about the future of our society and including the fates of their graduates instead of just the bottom line.

Students around the country have tried, with some success, to influence higher education decision makers on a range of issues. They have encouraged policies that support a fairer and more sustainable economy through community and responsible investment. They have rallied around the rights of undocumented immigrants to an education. They have argued for the rights of campus workers and helped secure better conditions and pay for workers abroad making university apparel. Students have also fought for university action on environmental sustainability including a leadership role in fighting for legislation on climate change. Of course they have also fought tuition increases and lobbied for the right to education. These struggles have met with mixed success in part because universities are often run by the same corporate executives who are dodging the needs of the 99%.

But students are rightfully angry at what is going on in this country where they can spend $200,000 on college and still be unable to find a job. It's about time for institutions of higher education to rethink their role in our economy and our society. Colleges must become part of the solution. They can use their endowments to invest in their communities, their purchasing power to help create good living wage jobs and their lecture halls to develop solutions to these crises. It is time for colleges to start building a world where graduates do not feel they need to #OccupyWallStreet. If not, they may soon have to deal with solidarity walk-outs of #occupycolleges becoming #occupycampus takeovers.

Photo from flickr user david_shankbone.

 

 

 

Follow Dan Apfel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/endowmentethics

Comments

[tofugrease]

03:25 PM on 10/11/2011

The Tea Party started with a group of disheveled conservatives who wanted more emphasis on families and small government. Occupy Wall Street is an equally progressive movement kicked off by those who would no longer tolerate common financial practices. I believe both are of equal valor.

In each situation, a group of people who felt voiceless mobilized and organized to let their views be heard. I may not be anywhere near agreement with the Tea Party, but I appreciate small people making big noise. Clearly past status quos are failing and as a college student nearing graduation I feel as though the demands of Occupy Wall Street can't worsen what's already broken. Give the new generation a hand at the wheel and see if we can't take society to a more justified and conscious place.

[Joseph Schmoe]

09:53 AM on 10/11/2011

Occupy campus?
Oh, please.
Stop whining and start taking responsibility for your own life.
Start by getting the education you're paying for (or mom and dad or aid and loans are paying for).
You don't see community college students involved in this nonsense. They're too busy working hard to get ahead and take care of their families.

[Jeanne MorinLeisk]

01:52 PM on 10/13/2011

Actually, a quick search I just did tells me that there are a number of Community Colleges that are getting involved in this nonsense. HCC in Connecticut had was seems to have been a lively debate and gathering of students and professors: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Teach-in-captivates-students-profs-at-HCC-2215773.php And indeed, it looks like CCC in Oregon is following suit: http://www.clatsopcc.edu/about-ccc/press-releases/public-forum-occupy-wall-street-movement. Anecdotally, I can say that my friends who are working at or attending community college are excited to join the movement with high hopes for making a bigger impact on their futures than the one they are trying hard to make at community college. However, I agree with something implied in your argument: community colleges are an arguably more responsible choice. The cost is way lower and the degree is often the same or nearly the same. But I would be shocked to find out that their investments were more responsible than those of private universities. Are community colleges actually investing in responsible community-serving banks instead of in large banks whose irresponsibility crashed the economy? I don't know. Maybe. I'd love it if they were.

[Jeanne MorinLeisk]

11:38 AM on 10/10/2011

It seems that colleges have been bleeding in more students in order to buffer the economic strain they're feeling. But then professors get in trouble if they don't pass their students... So now we're graduating students who find themselves $200,000 in the hole with some unrealistic expectations about what they've been prepared to do, how well they've been prepared to do it, and how fertile a place the job market is.

[naturasol]

10:19 AM on 10/10/2011

Colleges and Universities are businesses. Have you ever tried to transfer credits from one university to another? If they are a few years old they will claim they have expired and you must take the courses again.

Why? Because we charage you for the course.

George Mason
Miami

[naturasol]

10:15 AM on 10/10/2011

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
-- Sun-Tzu

If we don't promote Campaign Finance Reform, when you go home from Wall Street, K Street will still be prospering and claiming ownership of our congress and our country.

George Mason
Miami

[Robster]

07:31 AM on 10/10/2011

My son became a licensed plumber and has no problem finding a job. He makes 60K/year in Tennessee. College is to expensive and unless you get a CS, business, medical or law degree you may never recoup your investment.

[ssassy78]

09:11 AM on 10/10/2011

So the solution is we all become plumbers? Will you then complain that your son can only make 10,000 because people refuse to study for any other discipline?

This is a sorry excuse to justify what is happening to our society...

[Dan Apfel]

10:16 AM on 10/10/2011

And it's even hard in law these days! It's a lot of money and studies show extra income potential from college is going down. But thats not to say college isn't valuable, but schools to do more to create an economy that is just and sustainable.

[ivyteainn]

05:27 AM on 10/10/2011

We are sending kids to college that would never gone there thirty years ago. Instead of learning a trade, his parents said "You need to go to college." Now we have colleges for everyone. Community colleges are "educating" kids that barely could pass high school. Our school system says "everyone should go to college" and structures their curriculum around that fallacy. Colleges don't care who they admit because it brings them money. If the kid can't get a job when they get out of school, that college admissions officer still has his cushy job. Banks get rich on student loans. Everyone is profiting on the student who certainly got a lot of bad advice. The educational system is broke; everyone is profiteering except the kids.

[Beachdnagirl]

07:03 AM on 10/10/2011

I just want to say that I teach at a community college, and we're doing anything but profiteering. Most of the faculty and even, I admit, the administration, has a commitment to trying to bring our students out of poverty, economic or cultural, and into the middle class. The reason they come to college with poor skills is that the tax base for K-12 has eroded so badly that schools have few resources; couple that with No Child Left Behind and you have a recipe for high school graduates who need remediation. That's where we come in, and it's all being done on a shoestring, with shrinking contributions from state and county governments, to say nothing of the feds. And while we're on the subject: it's not colleges' fault that there are no jobs. There are no jobs! What are colleges supposed to do to train people for the jobs that do exist, teach seminars on how to say, "Do you want fries with that?"?

[DoUReally]

07:40 AM on 10/10/2011

But it is the colleges that set the tuition amount that has increased at a rate nearly double that of the cost of living, more even than the percentage increase of healthcare. Now, I'm not saying that this is in every case, and may not apply to community colleges.

[Bishop999999999]

02:27 AM on 10/10/2011

Students protesting at college? Shock!

[petey shabadoo]

02:19 AM on 10/10/2011

What students get out of college is up to them.
If you choose to go to college and spend $200,000 on being, let's say, a art history major, you really shouldn't be up in arms when you can't find a job.
I know we're big in this country on "finding oneself" and pursuing what you're passionate about, but in the "real world" that really means very little. Many college students, and I'm not that far removed from being one myself, need to be given a dose of reality when choosing what kind of education they are going to get. College is a stepping stone if used correctly, if not, well then I can think of a lot of better uses for $200,000.

[mamacita]

04:59 AM on 10/10/2011

You are correct when you say that college is a stepping stone if used correctly. However, it is getting harder and harder to find the right stone to step on. Nearly all fields are getting hit by outsourcing, including the engineering and science majors. It's gotten to the point where you need a college degree to get a job, but if you can find a job, you won't get paid enough to justify the debt you went into to get the job.

[4eva]

01:04 AM on 10/10/2011

Government backed student loans have created a higher ed bubble, just as they did for the housing market. These loans have been financialized just like mortgage loans were.

Watch out for the next bubble to burst.

[DoUReally]

07:42 AM on 10/10/2011

Your two sentences have summarized the entire problem. Well done!

[Green WhatElse]

12:17 AM on 10/10/2011

Occupying college campuses is probably not a good idea, it's the financial districts where the treason is committed against us. That's the root to attack: the corporate criminals and traitors who work for our nation's enemies. Our colleges should be places where citizens learn to recognize the enemy, after all.

[ssassy78]

11:10 AM on 10/10/2011

They work together to a degree. Colleges are not preparing students for viable economic opportunities, and they deserve some criticism for this. Don't take peoples' money if you know it will amount to a negative return on their investment. It is the same as bankers selling homes to people that couldn't afford them and then blaming it on the consumer for making a poor choice. When peddling snake oil, it is the salesman's responsibility to disclose any possible side effects. To do otherwise is unethical.

[Joseph Schmoe]

09:55 AM on 10/11/2011

Don't choose to spend your money and four years unless and until you know why you're doing it. Caveat emptor, sassy.

[HamletsMill]

04:04 PM on 10/09/2011

The educational system of the United States just like the Money-As-Interest-bearng-Debt Fractional Reserve Banking industry is a TOTAL SCAM. it creates carbon copy dunces who don't know the history of anything.

[longtimegone]

04:40 PM on 10/09/2011

Exactly the reason I opted for home schooling. One graduated from college as a history major from a private liberal arts college, one has just begun in the honors program of a major state university. It need not be an insulated, overly protective, anti-intellectual endeavor, though I realize it too often is. For anyone interested, this text provides an abundance of ideas about curriculum and texts; it was invaluable for us.

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Guide-Classical-Education/dp/0393067084/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318192792&sr=1-4