Students are tired of tuition hikes, and they want changes now.
What started as a small protest of angry graduate students grew to a crowd of over 100 as New York Students Rising (NYSR) held a walkout and teach-in on Wednesday.
The protest started out with approximately 20 students, and began inside the Student Union. Once outside, the crowd was met with a mock counter-protest of "The UB Billionaires," who called for the privatization of UB and larger salaries for administrators.
The crowds grew on The Promenade as students chanted, "Ain't no power like the power of the people, because the power of the people don't stop." The crowd marched on, banging on buckets and shaking noisemakers throughout Knox and Capen Hall, where President Satish K. Tripahi's office is located.
"If these [administrators] could really look at who they are affecting directly in the face and take responsibility for it, we can produce a dire effect," said Liz Rywelski, a graduate teaching assistant in the department of arts and sciences and one of the NYSR representatives.
As the protest continued, interested students joined in yells of the crowd. The unified students beckoned classroom students to "stand up, walk out, [because] we've got stuff to talk about." One of these students, Denzel Banks, a sophomore environmental studies major, heard the protest and joined in the crowd with his friends.
"You know what?" Banks said. "Power is always in numbers. Power is always going to be in numbers. Nothing is going to get done unless we all come together. So I said, ‘you know what? I'm going to join this cause.' Because I want numbers, I want things to stop. I want the rise in fortune to stop."
Not everyone who saw the protest was as willing to join in. Many onlookers in the Center for the Arts and along the Academic Spine watched the loud crowd with unease.
"It's overwhelming," said Olivia Gane, a sophomore biology major. "They're all over and they're surprising [to] me."
The rally was part of an effort that was held at campuses around the nation. The movement began with the "Occupy Wall Street," rallies in New York City. Thousands of people have gathered in protest of socioeconomic imbalance and corporate greed. It has since spread throughout the nation with overwhelming student support.
"They're cutting funding, they're cutting support, and the top administrators are getting more than ever," said Luke Noonon, a third-year graduate student in the department of media studies. "We are also standing in solidarity with everyone on Wall Street, occupying Los Angeles, who is occupying Boston, who is occupying Chicago, who is occupying hundreds of other cities. We are trying to build a democracy. We are trying to build dialogue."
Across the state, protests occurred at Columbia, SUNY Albany, SUNY Purchase, New York University, and many more. The organizers all argue for a "Chop From The Top" model to solving the budget cuts.
NYSR's extensive plan calls for anywhere between 5 to 25 percent cuts in salaries to the highest paid administrators, according to Cayden Mak, an adjunct instructor in the department of media studies.
Anyone in the SUNY system making more that $95,000 or more than $105,000 in the CUNY school system, which encompasses the New York City region are subject to these salary cuts, according to the "Chop From The Top" model proposed by NYSR.
These budget cuts would save over $14 million in the SUNY system as a whole, according to UB-NYSR representatives. The organizers planned for those savings to trickle down to students by lowering tuitions and eliminating budget cuts.
"Education does not have to be just a chase for more money," said Peter Shafer, who graduated with his Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy from UB in 2010. "The resources are all going to the top, the benefits are all going to the top. And those who are young and just starting out, who are students, are having trouble getting a foothold in this economy. These kind of tuition increases just add another burden to the most vulnerable and most critical members of our society."
Organizers and protestors alike were outraged that Alain Kalayeros, the senior vice president and chief executive officer of SUNY Albany, earns more than $835,000 a year. In comparison, the average yearly salary of teaching assistants is approximately $12,000, according to Rywelski.
"[For him] to take a pay cut would be like asking him to give up his cheese money," Rywelski said.
At UB, students were outraged at their own administration's salaries. President Satish K. Tripathi makes $650,000 a year - $385,000 from the university salary, $150,000 from the UB Foundation, and $115,000 from The State University of New York Research Foundation, according to an article published in The Buffalo News earlier this year.
The NYSR plan would result in over $3 million in savings to students, according to organizers.
[The president] is making over $300,000 [in salary] and I want it to be cut now," Banks said. "That's ridiculous."
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