It’s a depressing headline that we’ve become familiar with: student debt is a growing problem, with both number of borrowers and debt per borrower on the rise. A recently organized group of OSU students, Allied Students for Another Politics (ASAP!), will host a Strike Debt Assembly on Tuesday, March 3. The event will run from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union quad on OSU campus.
OSU groups AAUP, the Black Student Union, Coalition of Graduate Employees, CCDS, and MEChA will participate in the event as well, according to ASAP! representative Alex Riccio. He continued, “The assembly is for the purpose of talking about student debt, and all forms of debt, and ways we can resist debt as well as rising tuition costs.” While ASAP! believes that college should be free, the other groups will present their viewpoints as well.
Student debt is an issue that intersects with other social inequities: analyses of student debt in recent years have shown that black students have disproportionately more debt than their white classmates, and are less likely to be able to afford to pay it off after they graduate. While a college education is often seen as a way for individuals to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, debt from loans may prove just as much of a burden.
ASAP! is supported by the Anarres Project, which has been profiled by The Corvallis Advocate along with its co-founder Dr. Joseph Orosco. Along with student debt, ASAP! takes positions on other issues of social justice. Part of their mission statement reads, “We are a group of student organizers that position ourselves against all forms of oppression such as those that relate to race, gender, sexual orientation, and class.” More info can be found at https://
By Bethany Carlson
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