Genesee Sun

SUNY Students, Staff and Community Members Occupy Geneseo

GENESEO — Students, faculty members and community members gathered on the SUNY Geneseo College Green today as part of National Student Strike Day, protesting rising college tuition and budget cuts.

The campus’s Occupy Geneseo General Assembly put today’s “Occupy the Green” event into motion in coordination with the national college movement, as well as with the other “occupy” movements happening in cities across the country. Though the event took place on campus, its focus was not just on high tuition and program cuts, but also the unemployment and poverty issues in the Geneseo community.

“It’s not, at all, simply a student movement,” said Nick Marrone, an organizer of the event. “We’ve gone to businesses, we’ve put up fliers in town and we’ve made phone calls to community members. I think that’s the key. A student movement is important, but if you can involve the community, I think that’s even better.”

Several community members from the area heard about the movement and showed up to show their support and get involved. 

“There’s a greatly inequitable society growing and growing and it’s good that people are speaking up and taking a stand,” said Livonia resident Jay Lubert, who came with his wife. “We need to change things, and I think a good place to start is a college campus.”

Springwater resident Gloria Osborne wore a handmade sign around her neck with “Occupy everywhere; Occupy everyone” written on it to show her support.

“When I heard about this, I decided to come and show my support,” she said. “I wanted to be here and say ‘Yeah, we need to do it, we need to grow it. We need this to go everywhere.’”

Occupy Geneseo members set up tables topped with cookies, hot chocolate and informational pamphlets on Occupy Geneseo in general, as well pamphlets on why students should support the movement. 

Activities at the event included sign making, screen printing and teach-ins by SUNY Geneseo professors. Anyone at the event was encouraged to talk about their concerns and opinions on economical, political and environmental issues during the event.

Though many people support Occupy Geneseo, the group has faced some issues with the community about their message and purpose.

“People have criticized us in terms of our target and I think there’s been some confusion,” Marrone said. “We’re not protesting SUNY Geneseo. We think that the government should fund SUNY Geneseo. This is a movement in coordination with the state university system. Basically, we’re trying to encourage legislators to fund public education. We’re really standing in solidarity with SUNY Geneseo.”

The Occupy the Green movement occurs until 5 p.m. and is followed by more teach-ins and presentations starting at 5:30. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit http://occupygeneseo.org.