Zach Adams reflects on the wave of political unrest Pitt has seen this fall.

By Zach Adams

I walk into Schenley Plaza using the crosswalk in front of Hillman Library, thinking, “I know it’s cold, but I can’t believe no one showed up.”  Looking around Schenley Plaza’s new restaurant, the Porch, that was blocking my view, I realize my oversight.

An intimate group gathers around a fairly tall, black man from Occupy Pittsburgh, Calvin, who is a community organizer from Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  They partake in a call-and-response “mic check,” rallying to get a message circulating, and effectively, I might add.  We chant in support of the proposed petition to Chancellor Nordenberg for a tuition freeze at fall 2011 levels, while standing on the corner of Forbes and Bigelow, shivering in the brisk mid-day air as winter makes its presence known again.

I recognize social work grad student Leah Marmo from our internship together with the Three Rivers Community Foundation.  There are friends of mine and friends of friends.  Students mix with professors, workers, and random spectators off the street.  The diversity of the crowd would have you genuinely believe that education costs affect people from every walk of life – a novel idea.

On this cold Friday of Halloween weekend, I happened to bring The Original’s spiffy, Associated Collegiate Press pass (which I am coincidentally obsessed with) just in case of any police tomfoolery.  Indeed, after marching up into the Cathedral using the grand, limestone staircase and swirling through the flimsy brass rotating door, we were met by police at the door to the Chancellor’s office.

The rhetoric being tossed around while we waited for someone, anyone really, to open that door was a mix of solidarity, 1^st amendment rights, and community involvement.  Lieutenant Kenna did not seem amused, nor did his surly companion.  With each polite request from the lanky social work student leading the group, petition in hand, the response was the same: “You have to make an appointment” in a tone of voice reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit.

Robin Clarke, an English professor at Pitt, turned from innocent follower to passionate leader in a matter of seconds when she realized that not even a faculty voice would get her the keys to the castle.  She picked up her phone and dialed the Chancellor’s office.  They answered.

Vice-Chancellor Clark opened the door some time later and accepted the petition for review, citing a board meeting as to why no one had answered earlier.

“How’d you come in? Through the window?” someone from the crowd noted, since we had been told several times that no one was inside. (If you’d like to submit your own thoughts on the issue, feel free to send this welcoming man an email at clark@pitt.edu.)

Having accomplished the seemingly simple goal of giving a signed petition to a University official, the flock meandered toward the Cathedral lawn for some closing arguments against the system – some rage against the machine, you could say.

There were voices of reason encouraging better planning for future confrontations.  There were students organizing more marches, not necessarily listening to the good advice.  Calvin from Occupy Pittsburgh spoke of the movement’s accomplishments so far and about ongoing dialogue, as the group endured the cold.

Overall, this rally and march was a good first step toward negotiations.  Every student, every parent, and every employer is a consumer of the University establishment; should we not be able dictate a fair market price?  When social workers, for example, receive so little that they cannot repay massive debts, what right do the institutions have to charge exorbitant tuition?

Leah Marmo spoke to a local radio station about her $70,000 worth of college debt and the seven years she spent amassing it.  The median annual wage for child, family, and school social workers is $39,530, while the average American household income is over $10,000 higher. Understandably, the future seems bleak.

For now, the Occupy movement may be the national front-runner, but Pittsburgh is home to more progressive non-profits than you can shake a stick at, including One Pittsburgh, New Voices Pittsburgh, the American Friends Society Committee… to go on would be an immense task.

A student-based social justice group among these progressives, Students for a Democratic Society, held a smaller, yet admittedly more mobile rally on Saturday, October 29^th.  They marched around campus shouting, “We won’t say thanks, we won’t say please, we demand tuition freeze” and “1, 2, 3, 4, Nordy is a corporate whore.”  Though I don’t have the information to back this last claim, I will testify to the ebb and flow of the words.

Even now, as I am writing this article on November 2^nd, 2011, there are people at Schenley Plaza gathering solely in support of California’s Occupy Oakland movement (isn’t that double entendre great?).

There are others though, that inevitable Other, who don’t care about anything here, and will ask why I wrote this article.  They will ask why I care.

“The riots are stupid, like, what are they even doing?” my roommate groaned upon entering the house.

What are they doing?  I suppose the protestors wish to show solidarity against useless violence, to show solidarity with our student peers, and… dare I say it?… to show solidarity for that horrible thing – social equality.

So, whatever your social class, wherever you’re from, whatever sector you plan to enter (or have entered), the question is this: who deserves and who does not deserve a college education?  Is it a right?  If not, is our society at least advanced enough to the point where an education is critical to succeed?  Maybe even enough so that it should be free affordable?  (Look ma, I can compromise!)

Call me what you will – commie, hippie… joker, smoker, or midnight toker – I don’t care.  I care about my fellow peers, or would-be peers, that struggle in the fight for their right to study.  Now, you go on and think about that.