NEW PALTZ – Student supporters of the organization New York Students
Rising organized a walkout Friday afternoon beginning on the SUNY New
Paltz campus and continuing back around through the village. Well over
100 students participated, not only by taking part in the walkout, but
by making a mass organized series of telephone calls to the governor’s
office and flooding social media with pictures of themselves with their
demands.
Organizers from the campus’ Student Union and supporters have been
and are continuing to put on demonstrations to raise awareness about tuition
reform and student debt. The idea is to leverage Governor Cuomo’s
office into paying more attention to the student plight and invest more
money into the SUNY system with this year’s April budget.
Brandon Missig, SUNY New Paltz liaison for New York Students Rising and
demonstration organizer, said their demands are simple.
“Pass the Maintenance of Effort Clause that was passed unanimously
by both the Assembly and the Senate of New York. Governor Cuomo has it
sitting on his desk and actually vetoed it, but it was sitting on his
desk for a very long time and vetoed it without saying much about it.
Also, we advocate for the Millionaire’s Tax, which would bring $1.5
billion in state revenue, which could afford to cover the state disinvestment
in the SUNY and CUNY system. We also would like to hear more about Tuition
Free NY but, we’re not really sure if we support it or not yet but,
definitely pay attention to that bill that is going through the Assembly,”
said Missig.
Although this group of SUNY New Paltz students has conducted other walkouts
in the recent past, this one was the largest, by far, said Nicole Stiffolino,
vice president of academic affairs and governance for the SUNY New Paltz
Student Union.
“Every single walkout has been bigger and bigger and I think it’s
just getting people involved; getting people aware of what’s going
on because once they’re informed. I can’t imagine any students
who don’t realize how messed up this is once they really understand
what’s going on,” she said. “So, we’re going to
keep fighting; that’s the point. There’s not just one protest
and that fixes everything; we have to keep doing these walkouts and that’s
why this is the launch of our 20 Days of Noise. So, we’re going
to get louder and louder as the month progresses and do different activities
until Governor Cuomo hears us.”
