More than 80
students from 18 college campuses around the Boston area gathered on Sunday for
the Occupy Boston Student Summit held in Emerson Hall.
Occupy Harvard
hosted the Boston-wide meeting that was organized by various Occupy groups to
nurture a cohesive community and to create plans for coordinated action among
the different student Occupy groups.
“We’re taking a
step back so that everyone would be on the same page on issues,” said Amanda
Achin, a student from the University of Massachusetts Boston. “Also, we want to
take a step forward together, while growing the number of students
involved.”
Through
“Identity Breakout groups,” organizers attempted to foster connections between
different student Occupy Groups.
“We want people
to identify with something to build support in the community and organize around
issues we care about,” said Meg Lazar, a student from Northeastern University.
“It’s important to have these kinds of meetings and exercises to create not just
a movement but also a community that cares about where it’s going and what its
future is.”
The Occupy
student groups also set two dates for future protests. They planned the Higher
Education Day of Action, which will be Mar. 1, and Mayday on May
1.
The Higher
Education Day of Action is a two-hour rally that will protest the cuts in higher
education, as well as banking institutions taking advantage of student debts.
The tentative locations for this protest are the Massachusetts State House and
banking institutions around the Boston area.
“We are going to
institutions that failed us from an educational standpoint, institutions that
benefit from privatization of education,” Lazar said. “Also, some part of the
March for Education is for reminding people of the values of
education...something people tend to forget.”
Plans for Mayday
have not yet been set, although the national Occupy movement is calling for
general strike, student walkouts, and a protest of the G8 NATO summit that will
be held in Chicago. The Harvard Crimson
HJ/ARA
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