Nearly 35 Occupy UW members held a teach-in in the Humanities Building Wednesday to discuss issues facing the nation including police brutality, student debt, educational inequality and economic disparity.
A major issue participants discussed was student debt, which they said is at an all time high.
Katie Zaman, a UW graduate student and member of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, said the rising cost of public education is the main reason student debt is currently increasing and now exceeds credit card debt in the United States.
“Tuition is going crazy,” Zaman said. “The solution is give people more aid so they can pay for it .... You don’t really notice what’s happening until you’ve graduated and you’re $100,000 in debt.”
Associated Students of Madison Representative Justin Bloesch said he believes this unequal access to education will further increase the financial divide between the rich and poor, which the national ‘Occupy’ movement formed to address.
The group called the meeting in response to the injuries Wisconsin native and Marine Corps veteran Scott Olsen sustained last week during an Occupy Oakland protest in California. While protesting, a projectile thrown or shot by Oakland police struck Olsen in the head.
“Today is a national day of action in solidarity with Oakland and in particular with the victims of police brutality against the occupy movement in Oakland,” group member Elizabeth Wrigley-Field said.
Participants held up letters spelling out, “Solidarity with Oakland” and “Solidarity with Scott Olsen.” They took pictures of the signs and plan to send them to protesters in Oakland.
Wrigley-Field said police violence is not going to sway occupiers. “It was supposed to terrorize us so that we would stop protesting,”Wrigley-Field said. “But actually in every city where the occupy movement has come under attack … our movement has come back stronger.”
