Universities in dozens of cities across the country are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, but the initiative isn’t hitting home on the CU campus.
Although Occupy CU-Boulder, a group on campus aimed towards raising student awareness of Occupy Wall Street, has hosted several events and protests, the CU student body is still not taking action.
Mike Springer, a third year PhD. chemistry student, standing, and John Demopoulos, a junior physics and math student, sitting, discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests and government at the Occupy CU Boulder protest on Oct. 13, 2011. Although other college campuses have adopted the Occupy movement, CU has been slow to do so. (CU Independent/Robert R. Denton)
Emily Danielle, a CU graduate and current law student at the University of California at Berkeley—one of the most well-known protest sites for the Occupy movement—said that while she is disappointed in the lack of “occupying” in the CU community, she understands that there are major differences between Boulder and Berkeley.
“Boulder is pretty sheltered,” Danielle said. “It was easy to go about my day without having much exposure to circumstances very different than mine, or communities struggling with issues I never had to face.”
She said that Berkeley’s geography and location add to its activist community.
“At Berkeley, I feel confronted with realities in a way I never was in Boulder. So for me, that exposure to a wider swath of the world opened my eyes and made me care enough to get involved when I hadn’t so much previously.”
Danielle isn’t the only person who feels CU students should be more involved in the Occupy movement.
Elizabeth Dunn, an associate professor of the geography department, spoke at Occupy CU-Boulder’s Dec. 9 event, “What is Occupy?” Dunn said she was excited to share her feelings about Occupy Wall Street with her fellow students and faculty members.
“I dream of a university where academics are the absolute top priority of the university,” Dunn said. “I’d like a less bureaucratic university, which would let me focus more on teaching and research instead of on filling out endless paperwork.”
Dunn hoped that her message would become especially clear to the CU students.
“Most of all, I’d like to see students who put learning at the top of their agendas, and care about what they learn as much as they care about getting the credential at the end.”
While Dunn and others who are passionate about the Occupy Wall Street movement have plans and ideas for getting the CU campus more involved, students must do their part to participate.
“Really, I think it’s on the students,” Danielle said. “I think if students are really aware of what the income disparity is in our country and what the effects of that are for the lowest social strata, then this awareness will spur and sustain Occupy CU.”
Joshua Trujillo, a 21-year-old recent graduate from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, said that CU students should take a cue from students in Denver. Schools all over the city, including the University of Denver and Regis University, have been very active in the Occupy Denver movement.
“The Occupy CU people should come down to Occupy Denver on Saturdays for the marches,” Trujillo said. “At least then we could make Occupy Denver bigger, and then [Occupy CU-Boulder protesters] could get ideas on how to talk to people in Boulder and gain support.
Like Trujillo, Danielle believes that CU students still have the opportunity to become active in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“You know, I don’t think it’s ever too late,” Danielle said. “It just depends on whether we want to take leadership of the country or whether we want to stand up now and say, look, this system isn’t working, so let’s come up with something better.”
Contact News Budget Editor Lauren Archuletta at Lauren.archuletta@colorado.edu.
