StudentNation | The Nation

In the wake of President James Wagner’s notorious comments on the Three-Fifths Compromise, Emory students held a Rally Against Racism. (Photo: Jason Francisco)

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

For the last year, Aaron Calafato has been performing his solo play For Profit at colleges coast to coast. Chronicling his experiences working as an admissions counselor at a for-profit college, the play details what he sees as the predatory nature of his former work.

Calafato originally took the position because, ironically, it was a way for him to pay off his own student debt, while simultaneously helping others achieve their dream of attending college. However, It didn’t take long for him to realize that the school valued profit over the well-being of the students and that he was expected to do whatever it took to enroll students. As Calafato found out: “We were pushed to treat people like numbers, if you didn’t, your job was in jeopardy. I noticed when I started performing my job duties ethically, my enrollment numbers went down.”

According to Calafato, at for-profit colleges intense pressure is placed on admissions counselors to do just about whatever it takes to get students to enroll and apply for student loans. The more students that enroll, the more taxpayer money in the form of student aid is allocated to the school. Currently, only 10 percent of US students attend for-profit colleges, yet these schools receive nearly 25 percent of all student aid and are responsible for nearly half of all student loan defaults.

Students at the Power Up! Divest Fossil Fuels conference

In the final hours of Power Up! Divest Fossil Fuels, it seemed like there was still too much to discuss, plan and do. As students gathered one last time, the movement's strategic groundwork was examined. How can the disparate divestment campaigns be united? How can information best be shared and disseminated between the thousands of students already involved, and the thousands more soon to get fired up? How can we get all this done before the Keystone XL pipeline is built, and more people die and our planet is irrecoverably made uninhabitable? Logistics aside, it was apparent that conference attendees were more than ready to return to their schools and get to work.

Dividing into breakout groups, ranging from topics like using arts for action to negotiation strategies to forming a clear-cut national strategy, it became clear that the students already have the skills, strength and sheer will to make real ripples in the larger climate justice movement. Organizations like 350.org, the Responsible Endowments Coalition and others renewed their promise to let the movement flourish autonomously as student-led and student-run, and offered resources and organizational infrastructure as tools that could be utilized. Discussions wound down—although follow-up e-mails are already furiously flying—and all the attendees marched into Swarthmore's outdoor amphitheater for a final rally.

Students at the Power Up! Divest Fossil Fuels convergence.

The second day of the Power Up! Divest Fossil Fuels convergence at Swarthmore College featured strategy sessions and breakout caucuses. A sense of urgency was palpable throughout the heated workshops, discussions and panels held and the shape of a truly cohesive movement began to take shape.