Occupy USC begins protest on campus
Students assembled near Tommy Trojan for three hours on Monday in an effort to start an Occupy USC movement to show solidarity for Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Occupy · Nick Paladines, a senior majoring in international relations, stood in front of Tommy Trojan on Monday as part of Occupy USC. - Rachel Bracker | Daily Trojan
USC College Democrats organized the event that had between 15 and 30 protesters at various times.
“[It is] not a partisan movement,” said Ximena Velázquez, president of USC College Democrats. “But within our club we had a lot of people who wanted to participate in a solidarity movement for the Wall Street protesters.”
Alex Bakken, a junior majoring in environmental engineering, said though he disagreed with some of the protesters’ points, he respected their efforts.
“It will stick with a lot of us and we will be more conscious of these things when we go into the working world,” he said. “I’m sure it will have some impact on students’ thinking since a lot of us will be affected by it.”
Though displaying support for Wall Street protesters is still a chief goal of Occupy USC, the emphasis has shifted to focus on issues related specifically to the USC campus, said Kaya Masler, political director for USC College Democrats.
“[Occupy USC is] a place for people to come together and express common concerns and interests … as [they] relate to the USC campus,” Masler said.
After the protest ended at 3 p.m., the Occupy USC General Assembly, which comprised the majority of the protesters, met near Tommy Trojan. At the meeting, students wrote down what they believe Occupy USC is about and their goals for the demonstrations. The assembly will have a second meeting Friday to announce its specific goals.
Organizers plan to continue Occupy USC every weekday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of Tommy Trojan. Planners will alternate responsibility when they are in class.
Protest organizers said they hope the campus demonstrations will add momentum to the national Occupy movement.
“What I’m seeing is a way for USC to contribute to something that is growing all over the world,” Masler said.
Throughout the demonstration, the protesters received a range of feedback, including a few impolite reactions.
“We had a few rude spectators, but most people were curious about our movement [and] a few people joined in,” Velazquez said.
Velazquez also said Occupy USC was meant to set an example for other California schools looking to start an Occupy protest.
This is a joke right? Its actually perfect, get all the idiots in one place movement …….. go back to school folks ….
They know not what they’re protesting, Katman. It’s simply easier than actually getting up and going to class.
Wait ’til they take a look at their own kids’ tuition bills. They may wished they’d found something worthwhile to do.
JLH
Journ, ’58
12.5% of the planets have 71% of the mass. #OccupyJupiter
Where’s the Marshall students? They should be in this too.
Everyone’s looking for a handout. I’m fearful of this class warfare mentality.
I wish you guys would just read non-main-stream media, or maybe not watch the same news channels as the majority of people.
The protests are against wealth disparity, corruption within congress, oligarchical tendencies in our government, the growing corporatocracy, general ignorance (I.E. The Katman). These protests are going to be a way to draw awareness to those things within a university setting, especially here at USC.
In Conclusion, read books, not the lips of O’Reilly.
They are protesting their families wealth that is no doubt paying their tuition.
Then, either they’ve got some balls to be protesting against a system that benefits them (that has NEVER been done in history. Not even, say, Karl Marx, would do something like that!), or something is wrong with a system that only educates the people born wealthy. This may be seemingly ironic except let me point out that wealth and political ideology actually don’t always have to go together!
Katman,
Can’t you see they are part of something big with the goal of…………..will get back to you.
what, specifically, are you protesting about?