Equipped with signs and banners, about 40 students stood outside Hendricks Chapel on Friday protesting the national political leadership.

The movement, Occupy Syracuse, derived from the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, which began with hundreds of people ‘occupying’ Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan and the surrounding streets. Protesters spoke out against corporate greed, social and economic inequality, and the influence of lobbyists on the government, according to the Occupy Wall Street website.

The national protests were inspired by the revolutions in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world this spring, and Occupy movements have now spread out to more than 800 cities.

A group of 13 Syracuse University students formed Occupy Syracuse a week ago, and it has since grown into a very diverse organization, consisting of people with different political affiliations and several Syracuse residents, said Erin Carhart, one of Occupy Syracuse’s coordinators and a sophomore women and gender studies major.

‘We want Syracuse to be involved — Occupy Wall Street is a mobilization of people all throughout the world now. It started on Wall Street and moved to Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco, now Syracuse,’ she said. ‘We need to let people know that 99 percent of American citizens are controlled by one percent of the population.’

Occupy Syracuse has met every night for the last week, with general assembly meetings in Perseverance Park at 6:30 p.m. The meetings consist of collaborating thoughts, ideas and gathering a declaration so that the movement establishes clear goals, helping attract more followers, Carhart said.

Friday’s rally consisted of students of different political backgrounds who all seemed to agree the political system was corrupted by the influence of wealth.

‘Compared to other democracies in the world, we like to say that we’re the oldest, that we’re the first democracy,’ said Jeff Geiringer, a senior sculpture major. ‘And that’s true, but our system is the least flexible, the least reformed, and the least moderate of any democracy.’

Geiringer said the wealth disparity is the worst it has ever been, a sign of structural instability. He held a sign that read, ‘Take 90 percent of the defense budget, give it to NASA, colonize Mars.’

Michael Kowalchuk, a senior architecture major, said he partially viewed Occupy Syracuse as a response to tuition hikes, constant attacks on working people and increasing unemployment.

‘I think this a really exciting movement because it’s basically the first time in my lifetime that I’ve seen workers and students come out in these numbers organized together. It’s not just students and its not just workers — everyone’s come together,’ he said.

When it came to politics, Daria Mehra, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he often felt his voice was overshadowed by those who had financial influence, such as lobbyists and corporations.

‘America’s supposed to be a democratic republic, it’s supposed to be representative of all the people, and capitalism I feel has undermined our democracy,’ he said. ‘I’m tired, and a lot of other people are tired of just being passive. We’re not just consumers, we’re citizens.’ The rally caught the attention of several students passing Hendricks, including Shawn Ganz, a junior environmental science student at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

‘I feel like it’s more of a social movement than a political movement. They’re taking kind of a social understanding of what’s going on in our country by allowing people to sort of question the government,’ Ganz said. ‘But politicians are picking up on it, so it might promote some sort of rumble.’

meltagou@syr.edu

Published on October 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Marwa: meltagou@syr.edu | @marwaeltagouri