Million Student March is a day-of-action student protest movement in the United States of America involving 110 college campuses and high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, and college campus workers, from campuses across the country marching in protest against high tuition fees and student debt.[1] The movement also demands the minimum wage for college campus workers be $15 an hour. The movement states that the march is in response to a financial crisis in the United States of America caused by the economic decline in 2008. The movement has been endorsed by politicians such as Bernie Sanders.[2]
The march was originally organized on November 12, 2015. It has resonated with the millennial generation due to them taking on crippling debt for higher education.
The concept for the Million Student March is attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders who said :[3]
On Bernie Sander's campaign one of his many messages to the public was the importance of free higher education and education debt relief. How to start eliminating the student debt was the primary force to start the march and its message. Although the Million Student March organizers felt that he opened up a dialogue and pathway for the movement; not in any way where they gonna back him as a candidate.
The Million Student March aims to fight to achieve the following:[1] [4]
Student debt has become an issue for some young-adult Americans, and with the collective student debt reaching $1.3 trillion. In the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign both parties had agendas about education and the budget that comes along with it. The Democratic Party advocated for debt relief and free public higher education. Even though not a huge part of her campaign, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton[6] brought up the topic in some of her debates against Republican nominee Donald Trump. The Republican party in regards to their presidential nominee and the winner of the election Donald Trump never really spoke about the topic, but representatives for the party in Florida like Senator Marco Rubio and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush have expressed the topic as an economic issue that needs to be addressed. The issue of student debt resonates mostly with millennial and was an issue that democrats and liberals thought would be a strong issue to stand on. A well thought out plan was in order to facilitate this debt-relief system, this issue goes along with their agenda on universal healthcare and holds the same amount of weight. In the Republican party the most vocal advocate for student debt relief is Sen. Marco Rubio.[7] He has implemented programs in Florida in order to avoid the taking on of debt by students, such as backed-income sharing and online learning. Although Sen. Rubio has implemented these plans he also has teamed with other senators to create new plans that deduct an automatic percentage out of the individual's earnings instead of the already implemented pay as you earn plan. Some economist believe this plan to be worse in the long run. In all the Republican Party is more inclined to cut budgets and relief for higher education debt, under the belief that it is the individual's responsibility to know what are the risks and benefits of taking on student loans.
Social media is something that is so commonly used among generation z and millennials that the fact that social movements occur on social media as a way of gaining traction and how to spread the word about why, how, who, what, and where. The million student march movement has gained follows through posts on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. They share the pictures and the reasons why the march is important to them online. Social media allows the movement to go nationwide and it allows for people who believe in the same things to open up dialogue. Through the use of this medium other sources of media can cover the social movement and document how the marches are conducted. In other movements around the world social media is a platform for racial, political, gender, and generational issues/movements. In Chile their cause for political change can be related to the social protest and there is a direct link with protest and Facebook.[8]
The first Million Student March was organised and held on 12 November 2015 at over a hundred campuses in the United States.[9] Hundreds of students gathered in a number of colleges and demonstrated for free tuition, cancellation of student debt and other issues. Campuses where demonstrations took place included University of California, Santa Barbara campus, Temple University in Philadelphia, University of Texas at Austin, University of Massachusetts Amherst, City College of New York in Manhattan and Northeastern University in Boston, besides many others.[10] [11] [12]
The second Million Student March was organised and held on 13 April 2016 at a number of campuses in the United States.[4] This march was to draw in attention of politicians and the presidential candidates.
The Million Student March has been endorsed by Bernard Sanders, Jill Stein, Thom Hartmann and Noam Chomsky.[13]
According to the Million Student March website the movement has a long list of donors and supporters for the cause