Students across America protest debt in Million Student March

12 Nov, 2015 19:06 / Updated 8 years ago

Over one hundred campuses across the United States are participating in a march against student debt and for free public college.

13 November 2015

Protesters at the University of Washington block a traffic intersection. 

Students marching through New York City.

12 November 2015

At Loyola University in Chicago, students stood in solidarity with Mizzou.

Demonstrators in Philadelphia say they support students in Missouri.

In New York, union-member faculty came out to support students at Brooklyn College.

At Texas State University, students insisted that they wanted a response from faculty and their administration regarding their demands.

“We want tuition free institutions, a cancellation of the 1.2 trillion dollars that 40 million students hold as far as student debt goes, and we want $15 wages for student workers," Texas State University March organizer and President of Socialist Alternative Rudy Martinez told KTSW.

The National Nurses United union is also at UC Berkeley to demonstrate against student debt.

The scene at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Cornell University chapter of Black Students United called for the cancellation of a campus protest that is meant to show solidarity with the protests at the University of Missouri, citing the lack of "people of color" involved.

"In the future, please ask how you can support us before organizing on your own. With that in mind, we would appreciate the cancellation of this event," the groups Facebook post reads.

Donald Trump weighed in on the protests at the University of Missouri, calling the protests "disgusting" and characterizing the two university leaders who resigned as "weak" and "ineffective."

"Trump should have been the chancellor of that university. Believe me, there would have been no resignation," he told Fox Business Network. "Their demands are crazy."

Many on social media criticize the movement for having an entitled demeanor and solutions that rely on wasteful government spending.

University of California students at the Davis, Riverside and Santa Barbara campuses could be seen gathering for the nationwide protest.

As of 3:25 p.m. EST, they had the #MillionStudentMarch trending for two hours.

In addition to other demands, students at Temple University in Philadelphia called for a $15 an hour campus minimum wage.

Students at Texas State University marched and chanting, "education is a right!"

Payton Head, president of the University of Missouri student government, apologized on Facebook for spreading false rumors about the Ku Klux Klan being on campus during the school's protests.

Head, who is black, warned in a later-deleted tweet for students to “stay away from windows in residence halls,” because the “KKK has been confirmed to be sighted on campus.” 

The student reporter who filmed Missouri Assistant Professor Melissa Click’s call for "muscle" to forcefully eject members of the press from the campus’ protest site filed a complaint against her, according to KDSK.

"We are looking into this and following up," police department spokesman Brian Weimar said.

Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst can can be seen demonstrating, with some occupying the Student Union building.