On Feb. 22, approximately 80 students and sympathizers at Penn State
University gathered outside the Shields Building – the admissions
building on Penn State University’s main campus. The group was taking a
stand against the 5 percent increase in the price of tuition, an
increase that has added an additional $1,500 to the already steep price.
The students, led by Student Body Pres. Travis Salters,
marched through the campus, to the main dining building, and then to the
steps of Old Main, the campus’s administrative building. During the
two-mile march, the demonstrators shouted, “I believe that we need
help!” and “Tuition is too damn high!” By the end of the march there
were an additional 150 to 200 people, including students and professors.
The
steps outside of Old Main became a place where students and all those
affected by the tuition hikes could express their concerns and stories.
Many shared similar sentiments in that nearly all students were going to
be graduating with at least $80,000 of debt, if they could afford to
graduate at all.
A second march took place March 2, beginning
again at the Shields building with around 25 people. The group of 25
swelled to roughly 250 by the time the march reached Old Main. The
second march did not end on the steps of Old Main but went inside the
building in an attempt to get the administration to listen to the
students’ grievances. Graham Spanier, President of Penn State
University, was absent from Old Main during both marches. A third march
is scheduled for March 17, the day Penn State students return from
spring break.
The always increasing cost of attending college
caused by tuition hikes and budget cuts on state and federal education
programs is not limited to Penn State. This national trend is making
higher education inaccessible to poor and working families while
institutions of higher learning become exclusively for the rich. Attacks
on public education are accelerating as the capitalist class attempts
to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto working people.
The
Party for Socialism and Liberation believes that education should not
be treated as a commodity as it is now under the current capitalist
system, but instead as a guaranteed right for all.
