Passionate students armed with posters, voices and a message gathered on the steps of the capitol building this past Friday, April 25, when the Colorado Student Power Alliance (COSPA) and Jobs with Justice rallied for 1T Day, an event to call attention to the U.S. student debt topping one trillion dollars (1 Trillion Day). There were 50 people at the protest, including 12 COSPA student members, 6 from DU.
“Education is a right, not a privilege for the wealthy. It shouldn’t be a product to be bought and sold, but a service to the community and a means of liberation,” said Kaitlyn Griffith, senior English and journalism major from Omaha, Neb., who is also a member of COSPA and attended the rally.
The group was told to leave the property and then continued to protest across the street on public property. No one from the Office of Federal Student Aid came out to talk to the group, although someone eventually came to give the group a phone number to someone in Washington DC.
According to COSPA member Lily Montesano, senior environmental science and economics major, it is standard during rallies to let demonstrators stand in the lobby and for someone to come and communicate with the group.
“The fact that they were unwilling to engage with us at all was frustrating,” said Montesano.
The rally had four goals: to advocate making Pell Grant funding mandatory, require all colleges and universities to disclose all banking product contracts, promote all available loan repayment programs and cut all servicing contracts so that student loans are financed in-house.
The Pell Grant is a scholarship available to students funded by money that the Department of Education makes off of student loans. However, not all money that the government makes off of loans is invested back into students.
“The money that the Department of Education made off of student debt last year could have subsidized seven million students through Pell Grants,” said Griffith. “Students should know when they are being made a profit off of.”
The rally also called on the Department of Education to better inform students of loan and payment plans that are contingent on the amount of money a student makes, rather than on mainstream types in which this does not factor in.
Rally goers demanded that the Department of Education require colleges and universities to disclose any business relations that they have with banks, which may include advertising on campus or only allowing banks from a particular ATM to be featured.
Finally, the ralliers demanded that the Department of Education cut all servicing contracts and finance student loans in-house. Right now, the Department has a contract with Sallie Mae, a corporation making profit from granting and collecting on student loans.
While the rally had very broad goals, the cause was personal to Griffith.
“I am surrounded by people burdened by debt, people that I care about. Students deserve better than this,” said Griffith. “This problem is bigger than just me, it’s a detriment to our generation. Students are starting from less than than zero when they get out of college. They are unable to do complete milestones like marriage, getting a house and achieving other goals.”
For Brooke Baxa, freshman gender and women’s studies major who performed a poem during the rally, the issue hit even closer to home. She is currently on track to graduate with more than $100,000 in debt.
“I can’t think of any job I’m going to have where I can pay that off,” said Baxa.
Montesano, recently accepted into a graduate program, also has to confront the reality of choosing between loans and education.
“The acceptance letter was quickly followed by an aid letter that the program will come with $16,000 in federal loans, and that is a number I am not at all willing to commit to,” said Montesano. “It is not fair that students are making decisions on their careers based on the amount of risk they are willing to take on before they are 25.”
The problem affects more than just the people who take out loans. According to Griffith, it causes a student loan bubble, in which a gap forms after graduation between those who take out loans and must repay them and those who are able to start out debt-free.
“It narrows the pool of students and takes away from diversity on college campuses. It causes education to become a privilege,” said Griffith.
However, the rally sought to change that status quo by calling on lawmakers and the Department of Education to change regulation in favor of students rather than loan profits.
COSPA is currently planning to meet and go over the outcomes of the demonstration, considering options to go forward.
“We came out here and got our point across, we spread the word a bit. Spreading awareness is the biggest thing. The best thing we can do is build a strong foundation of supporters,” said Baxa.
In a broader sense, the rally demonstrated the capability of young people to take action against injustice.
“It’s a display of student power. We can represent ourselves, and people who seek to exploit us should be afraid,” said Griffith.
Students interested in joining the Colorado Student Power Alliance to help in the fight against student loan debt and other issues can visit the COSPA website at http://www.costudentpower.org/.
