The largest profiteer off of student debt, Sallie Mae, has been leading the crusade to make a buck off of students suffering the worst economic recession since the 1920’s. Already spending over one million dollars on lobbying in 2012, Sallie Mae has been one of the most aggressive lobbyists on the Hill using money received from students, to allow private lenders to use predatory practices, including hidden fees that further bury students in debt.

This spring, we have been taking the message of the 99% to the door steps of the 1% during corporate shareholder meetings. From mic-checks at Verizon demanding good jobs and getting thrown out of Bank of America for demanding answers about their bankrupt business practices, the fight continues on.

It’s become clear that student debt has spiraled out of control and now students are demanding debt forgiveness! May 24th students, workers, and recent graduates will be gathering in Newark, Delaware to confront Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord and demand student debt forgiveness and that they keep their corporate money out of our democracy. We will be meeting at 8AM with the action starting at 9:30AM.

For more information, contact Chris Hicks from Student Labor Action Project at 202-316-0237 or chris@jwj.org

Tell your Senators to keep the Stafford Loan interest rates at 3.4%!

Low-income and working students depend on the Stafford Loan in order to make a college degree attainable to them. By doubling the interest rate this summer, Congress would be taking away the opportunity that many of the 7 million recipients depend on to go to college.

Congress is talking about this issue now, but we need to make sure they know that we’re serious. Send your Senators a message today showing your support for students.

SLAP is excited to use this as an opportunity to kick off “Debt-for-Diplomas” – where students will attach cardboard shaped like a price tag to their tassel with how much debt their graduating with. This is a simple, no-cost graduation action that we know we can get a lot of press for, but we know that you all have some creative plans up your sleeves.

Tell us what you have planned in this form, and be sure to write up a report on how it goes!

By Chris Hicks, National Student Labor Action Project Coordinator

A month ago I was standing outside of Sallie Mae’s DC office with over three hundred students from all over the country asking for a meeting with Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord, and Sallie Mae responded by calling the police and having 36 of my friends arrested. But we are the 99%, and we can’t back down – too much is on the line. That is why we are going to Newark, Delaware on May 24th for the Sallie Mae Shareholder meeting and we need you there!

When we went to their DC offices, we wanted to ask them to forgive student debt, to stop lobbying against our interests, and to pay their fair share of taxes. They locked us out of the building and wouldn’t leave their offices. That is why students and graduates alike have said it’s time to take it to their shareholder meeting and confront corporate power! It’s a dire moment for anyone looking at getting a college degree: the average student graduates with $25,000 in student loan debt and one in two college graduates are jobless or underemployed. We need an economy that works for the 99% – not for the 1% and the corporations they control.

Join us in telling Albert Lord… we won’t let an entire generation of students be sacrificed to build his bank account.

Here is what you can do right now:

• Join      us in Newark!  Buses and carpools will be leaving from Orlando,      Boston, District of Columbia, and more cities!  Contact Chris Hicks      for more information.
• Let shareholders know where you stand by signing      this petition!
• Donate      to help a student get on a bus – even if you can’t make it, you can      help working class students from around the country have their voices      heard.

It’s time to let the 1% hear us loud and clear – this is the 99% Spring and we will win.

By Lindsay Damiano of University of Oregon SLAP

The 99% Spring Training inspired, empowered, and ignited me. Meeting on a gloomy Saturday in Eugene, Oregon, Jeremy, the other host, and I, had no idea what to expect. But surely people started trickling in, each one with a unique powerful 99% story to share, a unique passion, a unique reason for coming to the non-violent direct action training. We shared and empathized; the table included the unemployed, the conservative, the student drowning in loan debt, the old, the young, and the very concerned citizens.

After delving into the heartwrenchingly troubling economic scams that brought this country and all in attendance to the place we are, it was time to learn to act. We role-played actions ranging from protests to sit-ins to lobbying, and confronted the discomfort that often comes with meeting with decision-makers head on, and learned to overcome it. In practice-protesting, learning, and talking about our lives together, we 99% Spring Trainees inadvertently built a powerful team of dedicated activists ready and willing to make a wave of change. The next Student Labor Action Project meeting was charged with ideas, and on April 25^th, the day student loan debt is expected to reach 1 trillion dollars, we will be building an enormous Wall of Debt for students to band together in protest and disgust of the rising cost of higher education. I am the 99% because, as a college student with an interest in international relations and political activism, I am forced to take classes to learn a more “marketable career”, which is still anything but secure in this country. The 99% Spring Training taught me, other University of Oregon students, Eugene community members, and 100,000 other activists around the country just how to fight those issues that are plaguing our lives and our futures, and taught us the skills to effectively stand strong and fight back.

By Shane Furman of University of Central Florida SLAP

UCF’s 99% Spring Training was took place with roughly thousands of other trainings across the nation on nonviolent direct action.  Ida Eskamani along with Hayley Cavataro and myself help facilitate the training early that Saturday morning.  With such a broad array of people who came the meeting, we were shocked on how many people from so many different backgrounds and various ages.  They all came together to address the social, political, and the economic inequalities that they’ experience by directly targeting the individuals responsible, the 1%.

Surprisingly enough the majority of the people with an open mind to direct action organizing, because Orlando is a epicenter of electoral political, I took this as a sign for change.  These people wanted to empower themselves through creating campaigns that are capable of concrete victories for the working class here in america.  With so many people being instructed by one of the most powerful ways of effecting change in america, it’s only a matter of time till we can create a reality for the 99% in which live in a fair economy.

By Annie Mombourquette of UMass SLAP

For me, being part of the 99% means I do not get a voice in decisions affecting my everyday life. As a student at the largest public university in Massachusetts, decisions other people make without input affect my everyday life, whether it be working hours without compensation at my job on campus, fee hike after fee hike for my public education,  and most prevalent, my student debt with the threat of unemployment upon graduation. These issues do not only affect me. They impact every student on this campus and thousands more across the state.

The 99% Spring training matters because this is happening now. National student loan debt is projected to reach $1 trillion this month. The 99% Spring training matters because the time is now. Students, seeking a better future for ourselves and for this nation,  are facing astronomical debt in a limited job market with interest rates as high as 30%. Non-violent direct action is the way we reclaim our voice, the way we confront corporate greed, and make our stories heard. The way we begin is by sharing our stories with each other, because we are not alone. We are the 99%, and we will not stop.

By Isaiah Toney of George Washington University SLAP

This weekend, we got down to business in DC.  Across three trainings around 100 people were trained in Non-Violent Direct Action as part of the 99% Spring trainings (can we hyperlink this to the website?).  And across the country, we trained tens of thousands of people in coalition with 60 major national organizations fighting for social and economic justice.  I cannot speak for anyone else, but I thought that it was quite a thrill.

I’m thinking about working with Students Occupy DC and our DC Student Labor Action Project network, United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice and in particular the Sallie Mae campaign.  I’m thinking about rallying in front of the Sallie Mae offices in DC and how I’ve gotten to do it three times now.  And how if we had had this training before, we could have done it bigger and better: we could have shown more power.  We’re trying to shift the economy just a little bit by lessening the burden placed upon students who choose to go to college.  We think that tuition rates and fees are too high in addition to the interest rates, fees, and costs associated with paying back loans.  I know that I’m going to graduate with about $80,000 in debt and since the national average is about $25,000 (as of 2010), I’ve got a long road to walk before my debt is resolved.

But I lament not; for it is always a long walk to freedom.  I know that these trainings are a strong step towards our goal of an economy that works for everyone.  Our three trainings were hosted by the Communication Workers of America (CWA), who are fighting the VeriGreedy corporate giant Verizon to maintain good working class jobs in a tough economy, DC Jobs with Justice, which is fighting for rights for day laborers, restaurant industry workers, residents and workers affected by proposed Walmarts in the city of Washington, D.C., and our SLAP chapter at the George Washington University, the Progressive Student Union, which is working on the Sallie Mae campaign to make education a right.

These three groups have great records of fighting for social and economic justice in Washington, D.C., and I know that there are hundreds like them all across this country.  We are engaged in what we talked about in our training: the two-handed theory of nonviolent direct action.  We are trying to upset a system of injustice and simultaneously engage people in the endeavor of creating a new system of justice.  I think that folks got the lesson, and if you don’t believe us, check out StudentLabor.org after 1-T Day- the day that student debt nationwide is expected to pass $1 Trillion- and our national day of action to end student debt!

On March 26th, over 300 students from around the country came together to turn their individual stories into the public narrative. Below is a collection of reflections from students that took to the streets, faced arrest, and didn’t back down when Sallie Mae did everything they could to scare them away. At the end of the day, 36 were arrested for trying to meet with Sallie Mae’s CEO, Albert Lord.

I asked to meet and they arrested me
Lucero Castañeda, UO SLAP

My thoughts and heartbeat synchronized as one, while we waited patiently for that single moment we all knew was swiftly approaching. Through an exchange of movements, we all looked at each other and knew it was, “Go Time”. With a sharp turn left, we were on our way to demand and create something that would be known as real, impactful, and fundamental change.

With a second sharp turn, we collided with Sallie Mae to our right. After numerous calls, letters, petitions, and faxes demanding to meet with Sallie Mae’s CEO, Albert Lord and receive nothing but outrageous interest on our loans along with a response filled with silence; we, the students decided to demand a meeting, but this time in person. As the guard at the front doors aggressively denied our entrance, we held firm, clearly stating our position. “All we want is a meeting with Albert Lord, so we are just going to wait here until we get to talk to him”.

We quickly sat on the cold pavement. As our arms inter-locked, our single heartbeat began to progress faster and faster louder and louder. It was as if three hundred students from across the country were joining us. Our tightly woven pack turned into a mass too large to ignore that spilled into the open street, in only a matter of seconds. Our unified heartbeat accelerated into a burst of chants: “Sallie Mae – You can’t hide – We can see your greedy side.”

Sitting on that chilled ground, in front of the Sallie Mae glass doors, in between the mass of students from across the country, I knew I was in the perfect location. I remembered as a child going to get the mail and seeing the Sallie Mae letters, which my brothers and sisters were receiving, time and time again.

“La libertad es como la mañana. Hay quienes esperan dormidos a que llegue, pero hay quienes desvelan y caminan la noche para alcanzarla. – Liberty is like the morning. There are those who sleep and wait for it to arrive, and those that stay awake and walk through the night to reach it.” – Subcomandante Marcos.

I am not one who waits for change and justice to fall on to my lap and open arms. I am one of many who will fight for our rights, our right to an accessible and affordable education. It is time that everyone across this nation understands that there should not be any fees, because our education should be free. All those who were present that day, understood education as a basic right, one that today we are being denied and priced out of.

We waited several hours to meet with Albert Lord. We waited several hours to hear a response from Sallie Mae. Three hundred students chanted in a call and response “Show me what democracy looks like” and the students sitting in front of the Sallie Mae doors responded, “This is what democracy looks like.” Sallie Mae responded to the students by having 36 people arrested in front of their doors on 7th street.

The police officer asked me to turn around, put my hands behind my back, and to relax my wrists. I turned to face the glass doors of Sallie Mae and the tightly woven pack, as they chanted from the base of their lungs, “Hollaback,” the officer turned me to walk to the vans;

I turned to face three hundred students chanting from the base of their hearts, “I’ve got your back.” At that single moment, my heart stopped and single tears filled my eyes as they spilled down my cheeks. I had never felt such a part of something. I had never felt such unity and solidarity in my life.

It was then, more than ever that I understood that I am not the only one who believes education is a right. It was then, more than ever that I understood that this movement is more powerful and larger than me. This movement is going to touch and fundamentally change the lives of more than I can imagine. This movement has no end. This movement is the student movement.

Can You Hear Us Now?
By Maria Jennings, UCSC SLAP

“Sallie Mae, you can’t hide – we can see your greedy side!” This was the chant of choice for the hundreds of student protestors marching in solidarity in front of Sallie Mae headquarters on March 26^th in downtown Washington DC. The United States Student Association and SLAP had gathered students from around the country – California to Massachusetts, Wisconsin to Florida – to come together are protest against Sallie Mae, the biggest profiteer off student loan debt.

2012 is a landmark year for student loan debt – the amount of unpaid debt has finally climbed past the $1 trillion dollar landmark, with an additional $1 million added every six minutes. While students suffer and struggle to pay back the cost of their education, Sallie Mae profits off their interest rates and penalty payments. It’s time to discuss a system of student loan forgiveness with Sallie Mae to enable graduates to move forward, rather than be chained by the cost of their degrees.

We came together and demanded a meeting with the Salle Mae executives who could hear us chanting from their office windows. Despite the obvious fact that, as customers, we were entitled to a meeting, we were ignored and asked to leave by their security team. At around noon, our peaceful and nonviolent protest was interrupted by a DC police force, and thirty-six of our student protestors were arrested.

Our conversation with Sallie Mae is far from over – the students making Sallie Mae rich deserve to be heard. The conglomerate may be able to ignore one voice or two, but not when we all speak out together.

Sallie Mae – can you hear us now? Good.

A Time to Escalate
By Jonathan Alingu, UCF SLAP

I was a marshall at the march to Sallie Mae and the actual action with hundreds of students. Walking alongside the hundreds of students, from California to Florida, I felt a sense of passion, and a sense of sincerity. Many of these students are suffering from crippling student loan debt, which Sallie Mae is the largest holder, and the interest rates make it impossible for many to payback. I heard the yells of justice on the short walk through the National Mall, and the insistence in letting every bystander know that we as students are being oppressed by the system. Sallie Mae didn’t want to see us the first time. We emailed their CEO, and he didn’t want to see us. We had to escalate. 36 brave students waiting in front of their doors, waiting to hear from Sallie Mae, and were taken away by the DC police. These students sacrificed so much just for an education and were refused access to the people directly profiting from them. That is a shame.

We don’t fight these battles for ourselves. I want my brothers and sisters to be freed from the shackles of economic oppression. We cannot rise into better a better socioeconomic status when there are those looking to bringing us down. My desire to see everyone have access to an education without having ridiculous bills to pay is what keeps me going.

This is what democracy looks like!
By Lindsay Domiano, UO SLAP

Marching through the streets of DC, hundreds of students from across the country took up traffic lanes and chanted loudly, clearly, “education is a right”.

At first feeling uncomfortable as onlookers sneered and drivers honked and yelled, I realized this is not an individual issue; this is a systemic issue, and as students, we need to take up space for our message to be heard. With student loan debt recently surpassing 1 trillion dollars, this crippling national problem can no longer be brushed under the table as a personal issue; it is a crisis and a scam that cannot be ignored. Instead of standing alone to struggle through loan payments for decades after college, students can and must rally together to fight the greedy corporations burdening them with daunting interest rates on student loans through school.

Unashamed, students came forward at the Sallie Mae rally admitting tens of thousands of dollars of debt after just a few years of school. “Staying optimistic”, my friend Molly Bacon said of her mountain of debt, “is the only thing I can do at this point.” I swelled with pride as passersby joined the rally, criticizing Sallie Mae and other predatory lenders for punishing students with exorbitant interest rates for wanting to better themselves and become beneficial members of society by going to college.

Reclaiming our education – Reclaiming our future
Victor Sanchez, USSA President

Words can’t adequately describe the energy running through my body the moments right before we walked up to the doors of Sallie Mae and were denied entry. We were on a mission to have a meeting to address what is this countries next sub-prime crisis: student debt.

Over a $1 trillion dollars now, we didn’t move in as radicals, as individuals up to no good, we walked with the burden of debt millions of individuals–and not just current students, but parents, grandparents, etc–face month to month making payments that seem to never end, all in an effort to just talk. So we sat. We sat with arms linked committed to following through on what we had decided was out ultimate outcome: get a meeting with CEO Albert Lord.

They came from multiple states, multiple background, and different stories. But the group that now sat in front of that building was poised and unified. The security guard, Mr. Bahner, was in short, very upset. It was obvious he was trying to instill fear, making loud noises, huffing and puffing to demonstrate his frustration, and even cursing at me, as I continued to project reasons as to why we were sitting there waiting, demanding a meeting. The power dynamics were left undefined, but as I looked around, saw Nancy Gama, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Lucero Castañeda, from the University of Oregon, confidence grew that we would soon hear the rumblings of our comrades coming to support us.

At that point, you could have almost taken the scene out of a movie. There we are, 30 or so of us, security guards running around, speaking into their radios, confused and unsure of how to handle us, pedestrians pausing and asking questions, people across the street from there window offices observing and wondering and finally Mr. Bahner, arms crossed, eyes fixated towards me, then the street, then me again. At that moment we hear the faint escalation of a crowd of over 300 marching our way. I look at our group, then look up to Mr. Bahner, and in an act of total honesty, I mention “We brought some friends.” The change in his face signified the change in who had the power, and although we were all arrested we made our point clear and allowed our brothers and sisters to take in Capitol hill and let our decision makers know of the injustices taking place, with the very company and lending industry that is supposed to care for our futures.

The day was best summed up by my hermano David Castillo from the University of California, Riverside, who also was arrested. He mentioned in the holding cell how a couple with a young boy chided him as a socialist, to which he replied: ” no, I’m a human being, and I’m doing this for your kid.”

Little do people know that many of us understand the larger context as to why we do what we do. We believe education is a RIGHT not because we’re selfish individuals motivated by socialist tendencies–because we’re not, but because we have a vision of a world as it should be. A world where everyone has an opportunity to succeed and attend an institution with no barriers before, during, or after their experience at an institution of higher learning. Moreover, we know that this change is more about our little brothers and sisters, those who come after us. That’s why we’ do what we do. Because we care and love.

So if I were to say one thing moving forward its that we must never abandon our inner crazy, our ability to want and desire an alternative reality in which injustices like student debt do not exist. Real change can happen, and by all means, CEOs like Albert Lord can be reassured we will not stop escalating  until our demands our met, until clear recognition of the injustices individuals like him allow to occur as if nothing cease, and until our ability as a country to enjoy a FREE system of higher education is realized.

With fists in the air, the students silently marched towards 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue. Many even locking arms as they moved forward together. As we walked through the intersection together, I looked around me at the 300 students marching towards Sallie Mae to demand student loan debt forgiveness only days after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announce it had surpassed one trillion dollars.

The days leading up to this moment were spent at USSA’s 43rd Annual Grassroots Legislative Conference (LegCon) were the same students were attending workshops, Legislative Briefings, Lobby Clinics, and enjoying Awards Dinners. The workshops ranged from “Sallie Mae Sellouts: Taking Back Our Education” to “Radicalism in the Student Movement”, where students learned a history of action by the student movements before ours and how corporations have come to have such a large voice in our democracy. One of the recipients of an award being named after her skipped giving a speech altogether and instead just told the students: “Give ‘em hell.”

As we crossed through the intersection, students stayed disciplined and held our march that had been organized into rows of five and been silent and we reached the front doors of Sallie Mae on 7th Street. We found our friends waiting outside, blocked by security for the building, as they waited for a meeting with anyone from Sallie Mae. The students, lead by USSA President Victor Sanchez, sitting on the ground were assembled peacefully, having locked arms and taken on silence as well.

Those of us that had marched there quickly broke into our assigned roles: 7th Street was blocked off at D street and Pennsylvania as students sat down to block the road; over 100 started to picket outside of two entrances; and students began handing out leaflets to everyone coming out of the Metro stop and walking on the side walks. When all our systems were set up and running smoothly, USSA’s Vice President Tiffany Loftin lead a mic check to introduce speeches from AFT president Randi Weingarten, current students, and recent graduates facing student loan debt.

“The teachers of America have your back,” Weingarten said. “You did everything right. As a country, it is just plain wrong for us to say, ‘go to college,’ and then not make sure it’s affordable. Sallie Mae won’t even have the conversation.

“You are right to do this civil action,” she affirmed.

After an hour and a half of picketing, speeches, and police threatening arrest it finally began. All those sitting at the front door of Sallie Mae asking for a meeting with anyone from their office were arrested one by one until the space they had been in was left completely empty. For an hour and a half, Sallie Mae was happy to call the police on the students (the Department of Homeland Security even made an appearance) but refused to have a single employee come talk to us. By the end of it, 36 of my friends from around the country were arrested but the real criminals were inside the building.

As the last person facing arrest was piled into the back of the police van, we reminded everyone that we weren’t done and that we’d be taking the fight to the Hill, where students had scheduled lobby visits with Representatives and Senators from around the country. As 300 of us marched there together, we still locked arms and chanted together. As beautiful as the symbolic gesture is, student loan debt in this country has bound our entire generation together – the average student graduates $25,000 dollars in debt, 1 out of 5 students is forced to default on their loans within 3 years of graduating, and the national student debt level is now above a trillion dollars.

36 students got arrested for asking to meet with Sallie Mae about this growing bubble as we fight to save our futures and our economy. Will you stand with us?

Things never should have reached this point. That’s why students are taking direct action in the fight to preserve our campuses, protect workers, and make sure students have a say in how our campus operates.

Last week, students like you proved that we can create an economy that works for the 99%. At UMass-Amherst, students were able to prevent over 70 student workers from being fired. In Sacramento we saw over 15,000 students come together and take direct action to defend education, forcing a subcommittee to reject Gov. Brown’s proposal to withhold CalGrants from 72,000 low-income students.

At a time when our movement is more energized than ever before, Slapatista’s have been putting our skills to use and winning campaigns. When students and workers came together in Madison last year, we knew something special was about to happen and launched our national “WTF: Where’s The Funding?!” campaign asking the question, “Corporate Greed or Public Need?” After seeing public programs continue to be slashed while the 1% sat on record breaking profits, something remarkable happened: the Occupy Movement sprung up around the country, changing the dialogue about corporate power and economic inequality.

Now it’s time to take the next step. This April, students, workers, and communities are united to bring grassroots trainings to communities and campuses across the country. And once again we need your help. For this to work, we need organizers like you to step up as trainers and host events on campuses and communities across the country.

I’d like to host a training on my campus April 9-15.

I can’t host, but I’d like to be a trainer

We’re joining more than 40 other organizations to launch the 99% Spring. From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, for an unprecedented national movement-wide training. We’ll explore together the story of what happened to our economy, on the history of peaceful direct action, and how — following in the footsteps of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — we can take direct action this spring to reclaim our country.

As an experienced organizer, you have a unique power to drive this movement forward, by teaching others how they can take action. We’ll provide you with materials and support, and you’ll make sure others are prepared to take direct action for economic justice. Will you join us?

Yes, I want to host a training!

I want to join as a trainer!

This spring we will take on the greediest of the 1%. Young people are at the forefront of these fights across the country, and by leading the 99% Spring we can be part of the next major offensive to build a movement for full and fair employment and make education a right.

March 1 was billed as a National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. In D.C., around a hundred student activists gathered at Occupy DC at McPherson Square before taking to the street for a lively march on Sallie Mae and DOE. The action was organized by the DC Student Coalition for Education, which describes itself as “a coalition of students in the DC area in solidarity with the Occupy movement looking to change the problems with education that stem from income inequality and other causes.”

Outside DOE, students used Occupy Wall Street’s trademark “mic check” to deliver the Students’ Declaration of Grievances and Demands, which begins with these words: “We the students hold these truths to be self-evident: that education is a fundamental right.”

“I can promise you this document will be brought to [Education Secretary Arne Duncan] directly today,” Tim Tuten, DOE director of special projects and events, replied to students using the mic check. “I hope that we can have a response to you in the next week, or [by] March 9,” said Tuten, who stayed for the entire protest and engaged with students, opting not to hide behind the bank of heavily armed officers guarding the DOE steps.

“I want an answer from the secretary,” a young veteran said to Tuten. “I enlisted in the army at 17 because I come from a poor family [and wanted to attend] college. I went to Iraq in 2008. I still can’t afford to go to college. How many of our soldiers have passed away to pay for college?”

“Young people in America should be able to pursue higher education to achieve their dreams without worrying that this decision will devastate their financial futures,” said Lindsay Schubiner, who used the mic check to read a statement on behalf of her boss, Congressman Hansen Clarke from Detroit. Clarke, who will soon introduce legislation to forgive some student debt and create a student loan borrower bill of rights, said via Schubiner, “Graduates should never be forced to choose between paying for their groceries or their rent and defaulting on their loans because of unemployment.”

Clarke applauded the work of Stef Gray, who’s petition at change.org calling for Sallie Mae to drop its forbearance fee has garnered 150,000 signatures. Three weeks ago, Gray delivered a box of 76,000 signatures to Sallie Mae and Thursday she was back in front of the private student lender’s office. “Sallie Mae over the past decade has spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to strip away vital consumer protections and refinancing rights to categorize student debt differently from all [other] types of debt,” said Gray, who runs the site occupystudentdebt.com. TheFightBack first interviewed Gray at Occupy Wall Street in October, before her story and activism spread across the country and was profiled in the New York Times and Huffington Post, among other news outlets.

“I am heartsick to hear students coming out of school with over $100,000 in debt, of which perhaps $50,000 will go in interest to financial institutions like Sallie Mae,” Cathy Schneider, a professor at American University, told students outside DOE. She continued, “[Education] used to be a way of diminishing class inequalities… [but] increasingly only the rich can afford to go to university.”

This blog post was originally posted at TheFightBack, which can be found here.