*EMBARGOED RELEASE UNTIL: Monday, January 23th, 2012, 8:00 AM*

Contacts: OccupyUMB@gmail.com

Students Occupy the University of Massachusetts Boston in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street

*Monday, January 23rd, Students Occupy The Campus Center at The University of Massachusetts Boston*

The movement that began on Wall Street on September 17 has continued for over 5 months to spread globally and brought people together to take part in direct democracy. Occupy UMass Boston moves to bring this conversation to the campus this spring semester. We seek to create an alternative to the prevailing corporate model of education that excludes students, faculty, and staff from the decision making process.

Occupy UMass Boston liberated the first floor atrium at the UMass Boston Campus Center in Boston, today Monday, January 23 at 7 a.m., to begin an ongoing protest to provide a forum where students, staff, faculty, and members of the community can come to a consensus on what concrete changes would provide quality, accessible education in Boston that is available to everyone in the 99%.

Occupy UMass Boston seizes this space in solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet, #OccupyBoston, Students Occupy Boston, as well as others across the globe, from Spain, to Egypt, Tunisia, the UK, and elsewhere, who stand in resistance against the attacks by the 1% on working people.

Occupy UMass Boston is the beginning of an ongoing discussion about the problems with Americas public higher education system and how it has become less and less accessible to communities of the poor and minorities while simultaneously increasing the dichotomy between the haves and have-nots. We recognize that this divide is destructive not just to our generation in this country but to the global community.

In UMass Bostons original statement of purpose, presented by Chancellor John F. Ryan in 1966, it states As urban problems mount, many of the citys most able people flee to the suburbs and leave the oppressed (...) to struggle alone. The urban university must stand with the city, must serve and lead where the battle is.

The problems that burden our working class are even greater today. According to UMass Bostons October 2010 Beginning College Survey, 45% of UMass Boston freshmen respondents believe that Paying for College will be Very Difficult. And yet, tuition and fees are ever rising: since 2006, UMass Boston in-state tuition and fees have increased 38%, from $8,266 to $11,406, and the administration is proposing continued increases by a rate of 8% annually. This is a result of both state and federal government policies defunding public higher education and campus administration actions to convert UMass Boston into a privatized university.

During this indefinite occupation at the only public four-year university in Boston, Occupy UMass Boston will demand that our university runs on the principles of transparency, democratic decision-making, accessible public higher education, and protection for the rights of students, staff, and faculty.

Education is a right, not a privilege. "Education for the 99%" "UMass for the Working Class"

Official Website http://occupyumb.tumblr.com/ Twitter @OccupyUMB Youtube YouTube.com/OccupyUMassBoston Ustream Live Video - http://www.ustream.tv/user/OccupyUMB