Ohio University students and faculty members stared as about 50 students rode up and down Baker University Center’s escalators holding signs and flags and chanting, “Student power will never be defeated!”
OU joined about 80 other colleges throughout the country in declaring March 1 the “day of action” for students to protest rising tuition, student debt, student-trustee representation and other problems they have identified on college campuses.
About 100 students gathered on College Green around the Civil War monument at noon Thursday for an “Ohio Student Power” rally.
“For the first time, today I feel a change in the air,” said Tyler Barton, a senior studying chemistry who helped organize the event.
At the rally, students made signs, chanted and listened to six student speakers. Some speakers said they felt OU’s student trustees don’t have enough power to get anything done because they don’t have voting rights on the Board of Trustees.
Representatives from STAND Against Genocide and Students Against Fracking also made speeches.
Students discussed OU’s rising tuition, saying students might be paying off their student debt years after graduation. One sign advertised that the average OU student has $27,713 of student-loan debt after graduating.
“We are all fighting the struggle for student power,” said Jacob Chaffin, a junior studying education. “Problems never change themselves. It’s only when people stand up to them is there change.”
After the hourlong rally ended, about 50 students remained to march around campus for about 45 minutes, chanting phrases such as “Students united will never be defeated” and “Education is a right.” They paraded through Baker Center twice.
“I pay more each year only to get less value for this university,” said Jared Henderson, a junior studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator on Student Senate. “We want to wake students up and let the administration know that we are angry. It’s imperative we capitalize on this momentum we built up to now. We need to scream and shout until they can’t possibly ignore us anymore.”
Ohio Student Power’s next meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday on College Green to discuss what members can do in the future to start getting the change they want.
Administrators said they want students to speak out about changes they’d like to see.
“Any time we see our own students so engaged in these issues, it’s always a great thing to see,” said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis.
tt182810@ohiou.edu
