Starting Date: 02-17-2012
Ending Date: 02-19-2012
New York, New York 10003
United States
The Young Democratic Socialists Annual Winter Conference will take place February 17th to the 19th in New York City. The conference will feature exciting speakers such as Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Maurice Isserman, and many others.
Now is a crucial time to be organizing, with the energy from Occupy Wall Street still surging. DSAers and YDSers from around the country have been working to build their local Occupations. The conference will allow us to reflect on this work and discuss how to move forward.
Our conference will be specially focused on fighting back against student debt and rising education costs. Students today are facing a very bleak future. From 1981-2010 college tuition has increased 7% every year, more than double the rate of overall inflation, 3%. Overall, college tuition and fees have quadrupled in real terms from 1982 to 2007. Additionally, federal financial aid, which used to be 80% grant based, is now 80% loans based.
For many people access to college involves taking on debt at a rate that we have not seen before. The problems surrounding higher education occur because of policy decisions, and therefore can be reversed through different decisions. That is why we need to be organizing students to put pressure on decision makers.
At the conference you will explore this issue and many others, as well as learn organizing skills to help build fight back on your campus. Students will gather from across the country, so you can learn more about the struggle-taking place on other campuses.Geographical Scope: National Conference |
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