“Million Student March” reveals US "higher education crisis"
Tomorrow is earmarked as a national day of planned student action in America, with participants from over 100 colleges and universities calling for free public higher education, in what reports suggest is part of America’s "higher education crisis". According to a Facebook posting from a group of participants at  the University of Massachusetts: "We are high school, college, and graduate students, recent graduates, campus workers, former students, parents, and grandparents uniting in a day of action on November 12, 2015 to demand tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers…Education should be free and a right, not a privilege."

AMHERST - University of Massachusetts students are participating in the 'Million Student March' Thursday, a national day of action with mass demonstrations at over 100 colleges and universities across the country around the crisis surrounding higher education.

Students and others are calling for free pubic higher education, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 dollar minimum wage for all campus-workers.

According to a Facebook posting "We are high school, college, and graduate students, recent graduates, campus workers, former students, parents, and grandparents uniting in a day of action on November 12, 2015 to demand tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers.

"Education should be free and a right, not a privilege."

Students at UMass are also "demanding fossil fuel divestment, gender neutral bathrooms and housing, a Survivor's Bill of Rights for survivors of gender-based violence, financial transparency, boycott, divestment, and sections of Israel, and increase in the retention and recruitment of students of color at UMass, and more," according to a press release from Charlotte Kelly, communication and outreach director for the Center for Education Policy & Advocacy at UMass

The march is also part of a week of action across the state that began with a conference at MassBay Community College Saturday called "Expanding Access to Higher Education"

Also as part of the action groups of students, faculty, and former college students with debt are collecting signatures for a constitutional ballot question that would create an additional tax on annual income above $1 million to invest in debt-free public college, as well as transportation and public education, according to a press release from Raise Up Massachusetts, which is proposing the legislation.

"Local supporters are out every day talking to voters at campus centers, in dorms, and outside classrooms as they collect signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the 2018 ballot," according to the release.

According to the UMass Board of Trustees' Committee on Administration and Finance, 74 percent of UMass undergraduates will graduate with an average of $29,406 in college debt in fiscal 2014, compared to 72 percent who graduated with average debt of $27,448 in fiscal 2011.