In a show of defiance to a financial and political system they believe is broken, a group of Elon students visited New York City over Fall Break.
A dozen Elon University students traveled to New York City this month as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has sparked hundreds of protests nationwide against corporate influence in the political system and a growing economic divide in the United States.
Senior Maggie Castor, who helped organize the trip to New York over Fall Break, said the group camped in the city’s Zuccotti Park with hundreds of other protesters. For the philosophy major from the Pacific Northwest, the four days she and her classmates dedicated to the movement demonstrated the power of collective action.
For instance, Castor explained, large crowds communicated through a “mic check” system where speakers would offer brief remarks, and those in attendance would loudly repeat what was said for others farther back to hear.
Castor and student Lauren Clapp were captured in Associated Press photographs showing protesters in Times Square barricade facing police, a situation that Castor described as “tense.” Castor characterized the barricade, and the march through Manhattan that led to the moment, as one of the highlights from the trip.
The students also participated in workshops, slam poetry celebrations and a women’s forum.
What has prompted the thousands of protesters to voice their concerns in New York City and beyond? The reasons are varied, from the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case that equated corporations with people, to the taxpayer funded bailouts of investment banks.
“For me, not speaking for anyone else who went, I come form a working class family and feel very affected by the economic issues that our country is facing,” Castor said. “To come to Elon, I’m in $160,000 debt through loans. I’ve had to do full loans every year that I’ve been here. That’s horrifying because I’ve been a successful student, yet I don’t know what happens to me when I graduate.”
Some students left the city by the Sunday evening of fall break. A majority of the group headed home to campus the next morning.
“I have never participated in democracy to the extent I did when I was up there,” Castor said. “I think for a lot of folks, the strongest, most significant experience was engaging with democracy in a very direct manner and making concrete decisions.”
Occupy Wall Street has since grown from a local protest in the heart of the nation’s financial sector to a worldwide movement.