StudentNation

Kent State Students Demand Debt Redress

Kyle McCarthy and StudentNation on April 17, 2013 - 11:18 AM ET

College students in Ohio currently graduate with nearly $28,000 in student loans, which ranks seventh highest in the United States. In addition to incurring large debts to attend college, graduates also now face a job market where average starting salaries have declined for six straight years.

At Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, students are taking on even more debt than both the state and national average. According to the Project On Student Debt, for the year 2010, 77 percent of Kent State graduates took out student loans. Even worse, the average debt upon graduation was $28,186! Why? Look at the rising tuition and fees. Since 2003, tuition and fees have increased by 46 percent. Moreover, KSU students have recently been informed that they will also be charged $440 per each credit hour for each one they take over 16. Such a plan will only force more students to incur more debt and extend the estimated date of graduation for many and is far less generous than most other colleges and universities in Ohio, which don't charge additional fees until 18 credit hours or more are reached.

In an effort to raise awareness about excessive tuition hikes and fees, the KSU Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) are organizing with other student groups, creatively utilizing social media to connect with others on campus and organizing digitally to stand in solidarity with students mobilizing at other campuses in the state.

Student Labor Action Movement Calls Foul On NYU Law Trustee Daniel Straus

Paul Pastore and StudentNation on April 16, 2013 - 1:18 PM ET

At last week's Deans Cup Basketball game between NYU Law School and Columbia Law School members of the Student Labor Action Movement or S.L.A.M. unfurled two banners in protest of Law School Trustee Daniel Strauss. He has sat on the Law School's Board of Trustees since 1998 and endows the University with an ongoing gift of $1.25 million a year to run the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice, which is located in a townhouse at 22 Washington Square North.

The students also handed out popcorn with flyers attached asking NYU to cut ties with Strauss. Strauss owns both the CareOne and Healthbridge management companies which own dozens of nursing homes in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. S.L.A.M. claimed in an April 11 press release that Strauss' companies had "illegally intimidated, fired, and locked out nursing home workers in their facilities in New Jersey and Connecticut".

Dispatches From the US Student Movement: April 15

StudentNation on April 15, 2013 - 2:55 PM ET

Students at Berkeley form a chain gang. (Photo courtesy of Patricio Yrarrázaval)

E-mail questions, tips or proposals to studentmovement@thenation.com. For recent dispatches, check out posts from January 18, February 1, February 15, March 1, March 15 and April 2.

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An Open Letter to Harvard President Drew Faust

StudentNation on April 15, 2013 - 11:50 AM ET

This letter was recently written by three Harvard undergraduates, Pennilynn R. Stahl, Krishna Dasaratha and Chloe Maxmin, on behalf of Divest Harvard, as part of the group's ongoing campaign to convice its university to divest all investments from the leading fossill-fuel companies. On Thursday, April 11, President Faust declined to meet with students herself but she did send a visibly tense Marc Goodheart, Vice President and Secretary of the University, outside to accept the signatures.

Dear President Faust,
During this past academic year, we have called upon Harvard to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies that own the majority of the world’s fossil fuel reserves. By sponsoring climate change through our investments, our University is threatening our generation’s future.

Arizona's Unprecedented Assault on Students

Maxwell Love and StudentNation on April 12, 2013 - 4:06 PM ET

The next battle in the right’s war against young people is playing out in Arizona.

On April 5, Governor Jan Brewer signed into law HB 2169. The bill specifies that a university cannot transfer money to student organizations if that money will then be used to influence “the outcome of an election or to advocate support for or opposition to pending or proposed legislation. Additionally, if the bill were passed, a student enrolled in a university would have to consent to the transfer of their tuition or fees to a specified student organization. Without consent, the fees would not be transferred.

Interns' Favorite Articles of the Week (4/12/13)

StudentNation on April 12, 2013 - 11:07 AM ET

In education news, essays may soon be graded by machine, but at the same time two community activists tell the Huffington Post about organizing to take back kids' schooling. Elsewhere, economist Richard Wolff has broken into primetime with his critique of our financial system and negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government could finally end a half-century conflict.

— Alleen Brown focuses on education.

Follow @AlleenBrown

Harvard Vice President Reluctantly Accepts Signatures for Fossil Fuel Divestment

Alli Welton and StudentNation on April 12, 2013 - 10:29 AM ET

Students rally for divestment at Harvard. (Courtesy of Camilla Gibson.)

The Divest Harvard campaign achieved a short-term victory this morning when the University unexpectedly sent a high-level official to accept 1,300 student and alumni signatures in support of fossil fuel divestment in front of over 150 people who had rallied to deliver them.

IU on Strike

StudentNation on April 11, 2013 - 12:28 PM ET

Indiana students rally outside of Franklin Hall. (Courtesy of Matthew Bloom).

Hannah Smith, an undergraduate student reporter for the Indiana Daily Student, filed this report today on the on-going strike actions taking place today and tomorrow at Indiana University, Bloomington. Follow @idsnews to keep up with paper's invaluable reporting on the strike and other campus and community issues.

Brown University Investment Committee Recommends Divestment from Coal

StudentNation on April 10, 2013 - 3:27 PM ET

Students rally for divestment. (Courtesy of the Brown Divest Coal Campaign).

Earlier this week, in another victory for the growing movement pushing colleges and universities to divest from companies profitting from fossil fuels, a Brown University oversight committee voted to recommend that the university divest from the country’s 15 largest coal companies.

What is Student Power?

Daniela Lapidous and StudentNation on April 9, 2013 - 12:52 PM ET

This article was originally published in the Columbia Spectator and is reposted here with the permission of the author.

What is “student power”? It took me a long time to begin to understand the term, despite being surrounded by people who invoke it often. When we work on divestment, demanding that Columbia and Barnard stop investing our endowments in the fossil fuel industry, we discuss that it is only one of many important tools in the broader movement for climate justice and student power. (Power. It sounds funny when you say it a few times.)

I believe power means that students have the ability to identify problems and solve them in the face of bureaucratic and institutional obstacles. It means setting a goal and having the communication network, the strategy, the physical numbers, and the commitment to achieve it. It means the fair representation of students in political and social issues. It means building the society we want rather than simply accepting the society into which we were born.