MSU Students To Protest Tuition Hikes

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Montclair State University,
the group that brought Bill Ayers to campus and staged MSU’s own
version of Occupy Wall Street, will be speaking out against tuition
increases at the summer meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday at 4 p.m.

As students aren’t allowed to actually speak at these meetings, the protesters are planning other ways to get their message across, said Mark Ludas, press secretary for the Students for a Democratic Society.

A grassroots campaign of petitioning, phonebanking, and publicity has
arisen around the central purpose of drawing students to this Board of
Trustees meeting. From those dependent on the Educational Opportunity
Fund—just one such funding program endangered by the threat of state
austerity—to those few who can afford to pay out-of-pocket, the SDS
hope to demonstrate that tuition increases are an injustice, not just
to one group or another, but to education itself, Ludas said.

"We expect the proposed tuition increase will fall between 3.5 percent and 6 percent based on past increases and word of mouth," he said.

SDS members and participating allies plan to situate themselves
as close as possible to the Trustees themselves, holding signs that
convey disdain for the tuition hikes littering Thursday’s agenda. To
protest the denial of the student voice from the decisionmaking
process, protestors will appear with their mouths gagged, Ludas said.

They will remain in the room, clearly visible to all the Trustees. If
asked to leave or move, they will refuse, because the human beings
whose lives are affected by this decision must be represented. The SDS
invites all forms of support for this action: students, parents,
faculty, staff, and the general public are encouraged to show their
solidarity with student rights, to defend public education. For
information, write to montclairstatesds@gmail.com.

WHO: Students for a Democratic Society, Montclair State University
WHAT: Student action at the meeting of the Board of Trustees to
protest tuition increases
WHERE: 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ 07043, University Hall--Room 1020
WHEN: 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 26, 2012