EDITORIAL: Occupy Wall Street movement raises students' legitimate concerns
The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in Manhattan and have since spread throughout the U.S. can be rightly criticized for lacking a single message.
However, the lack of uniformity in their complaints does not mean the protests are illegitimate or the issues raised are unimportant.
Though health care reform, environmental protection and reducing the influence of corporate lobbyists are all worthwhile and important goals, for students graduating into this recessed, perhaps depressed economy, few things are more important than job creation and student loan reform.
The New York Times reported that of members of the class of 2010, only 56 percent had found a job by the time the survey was conducted last spring, whereas 90 percent of grads from 2006 and 2007 have found jobs.
The students who are able to find work after graduation are saddled with crippling student loan debt, some reaching six figures with double digit interest rates.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the average debt for recent college graduates is higher than it has ever been at $22,900.
The New York Times reported the median starting salary for graduates of four-year universities who do find work was down 10 percent from the 2006 to 2008 figures, without even accounting for inflation, diminishing the ability for graduates to pay back their loans.
If education is indeed the road out of our current economic slump, then allowing potentially predatory lending guaranteed by the government seems like a cruel trick to play on ambitious students. The cost of a college education continues to increase at a rate far outstripping inflation, and students are saddling themselves with debt made incredibly difficult to pay off in this job market.
The general sentiment among students and recent graduates can be seen in the movement's growth from a local protest in New York's financial district to an international protest against current economic conditions.
The protests suggest the amount and level of discontent with the status quo, and the spreading of the demonstrations abroad, to places like Rome, London and Denmark, suggest the participants are not just the vocal minority.
With organizers now attempting to establish protests in Mount Pleasant, there is potential to make serious changes in the community and university.
Staying true to a message is pivotal to the success of the movement. If the movement is to gain momentum in Mount Pleasant or anywhere else, it needs to be organized and have an obtainable goal.
This is a challenge to organizers and participants. While going through the proper bureaucratic channels often accomplishes nothing, a protest of considerable size can find alternate ways to get noticed and demand reform.
These protests have the ability to have a profound impact on the financial and political gridlock we are experiencing, or dissolve into meaninglessness.
