Hundreds of students from Boston and elsewhere joined together in a march yesterday to protest - among other concerns - American economic systems, corporate corruption and a lack of affordable education.
The student march began in the Boston Common and met a larger march of community groups and labor unions in Dewey Square, where they continued on toward the North Washington Bridge. The whole group marched throughout Boston for approximately four hours.
Students at the march represented a range of schools, including Boston University (BU), Tufts, Northeastern University, Emerson College, Harvard University, Boston College, University of Vermont, Salem State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fitchburg State University.
Students first gathered at 1:30 p.m. on the Boston Common, where Occupy Boston members informed the group that they risked arrest by marching.
Speakers at the gazebo on the Boston Common recommended that students keep track of the legal observers, volunteers present to monitor police actions. The speakers also reminded students that the protest needed to remain nonviolent.
Many protesters expressed student?related concerns, including a need for affordable education and financial transparency in schools. Signs read, "State school student and proud of it" and "Pay your share - we do!"
Beau Lyle, a member of the movement who attended the College of Charleston, said that students accumulate debt in their attempt to get an education.
"Students are getting out of college and being enslaved to debt," Lyle said. "I know a lot of students are really scared."
Richard Peet, a Massachusetts resident, brought his six?year?old daughter to the march. She held a sign that read, "Education not speculation."
"I think education should be subsidized by the government," Peet said.
Tufts sophomore Lucas Koerner, who participated in the march, expressed concern about universities' lack of transparency in financial budgets and decisions.
"As students, there are very real grievances and very legitimate reasons for us to be here," he said. "We don't have any voice in how our university runs."
Jill McDonough, an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University, BU and University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston, said that the UMass Boston Faculty Staff Union sent an email encouraging members to support students at the march.
McDonough said she was concerned about students' futures in a tough job market.
"I'm worried about my students getting jobs when they graduate," McDonough said.
Other marchers aired grievances against corporate culture.
"Corporate greed and corruption have reached an all?time high," Sarah Lombardo, a freshman at Northeastern, said.
"The corporations have too much influence in the government," Meredith Willmoth, a sophomore at Emerson, said.
Students began marching at 2 p.m. The march first headed down Beacon Street and stopped to protest outside of the local Fox affiliate offices on Park Street.
The march proceeded on Summer Street to Dewey Square, where students met with protesters from different groups, such as teachers, labor groups and political groups like Socialist Alternative.
Once united, marchers walked through Boston, passing area landmarks such as City Hall, Faneuil Hall and TD Garden, chanting, "How do we fix the deficit? End the war, tax the rich!" as well as "This is what democracy looks like!"
The march temporarily blocked traffic at several points, but at some points in the march the police appeared to redirect traffic to allow protesters to pass.
The march came to an impasse with the Boston Police Department when police prevented protesters' entry to the Charlestown Patriot?Bridge. The police had blocked the bridge with cars, bikes and over two dozen policemen, all of whom appeared armed with guns.
As protesters saw policemen blocking the bridge, they chanted, "The whole world is watching!"
The police arrested one person, according to Tufts junior Rachel Greenspan.
As of the writing of this article, that person was in contact with the National Lawyers Guild, a nonprofit organization that offers aid to people arrested in political protests, Greenspan said.
This marks the first time anyone has been arrested in connection with Occupy Boston, according to Danny Foster, a junior at Tufts and member of the movement.
The Occupy movement began in New York on Sept. 17, when protesters formed a group called "Occupy Wall Street" to protest economic inequality in American society.
Since then, the movement has gained a following in cities around the United States and outside the country.
Occupy Boston protesters began occupation of Dewey Square on Sept. 30. The occupation tent city includes tents for food, medical care, legal advice and general supplies. These resources are communal and funded by donations.
Tufts junior Jack Thomas, a member of the movement, said students decided to organize the group Students Occupy Boston based on different schools' interest in the Occupy movement.
When Tufts students created a Facebook group for Tufts Occupy Boston, students from other schools started joining, Thomas said.
"When we realized there was interest from not just Tufts but many other institutions, we decided it would be a good idea to form some kind of organizing body to coordinate events," Thomas said.
Representatives from Tufts, BU, Simmons College and UMass Boston met last Monday in the Mayer Campus Center to begin discussing how to coordinate student efforts, Thomas said.
A larger group of students from 10 schools then met last Thursday and decided to march in a show of solidarity among students, according to an Occupy Boston press release.
"When students are banding together to cooperate and act in each others' interests, it can be very powerful," he said.
Thomas hopes that members of Students Occupy Boston will meet regularly to continue to discuss objectives for students in the movement.
"We'll decide what it is we want to accomplish as students in the Boston area, and how it is that we want to work together to make that happen," he said.
He hopes the Occupy movement will inspire a new respect for compassion between people.
"The point is to change the way that people interact with one another, think about one another," Thomas said. "A lot of our culture operates on the idea of watching out for yourself and screwing everybody else."
