One of the movement’s last offshoots is grappling with the financial burden of college, making their views heard at financial aid advisers’ ‘private Mardi Gras’

It has been almost four years since the Occupy movement came to life in Zuccotti Park, at the heart of Wall Street. Today the park has been reclaimed by tourists, bankers and traders, and the Occupy movement seems to be just a footnote in the history books.

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Except, that is, for a group of Occupy Wall Street activists who have gone on to form the Debt Collective, one of the last offshoots of the movement. And it has found a new group of Americans to confront: financial a`id advisers at America’s colleges.

On Monday evening about 3,000 financial aid advisers from US universities and colleges gathered in New Orleans for the 2015 National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) conference. In addition to panels and workshops, this year’s annual gathering also featured a parade for the NAFSAA members.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kim Tran holding up ‘how far to free’ fans. Photograph: Ange Tran/Courtesy of Debt Collective

The Debt Collective members decided to crash this “private Mardi Gras” and show the financial aid administrators that, in the activists’ opinion, they are not actually providing aid. Instead, the Debt Collective members say, these school officials are contributing to the $1.2tn student debt crisis currently plaguing the US.

“They are making money off of students and they don’t need to be,” said Laura Hanna, one of the members of the Debt Collective. “We want to challenge this notion that they are somehow providing a helping hand when students are being harmed, when we see the massive student debt problem that on average students are graduating – not even in the for-profit sector – with around $35,000 in debt. We are talking about a massive crisis, yet this conference is celebrating itself in New Orleans. It’s absurd.”

And so as NAFSAA members marched down the streets of New Orleans on Monday, they were joined by members of the Debt Collective and a number of students saddled with high student loan debt.

The Debt Collective project is an extension of the Rolling Jubilee Fund. The fund had previously used publicly raised funds to buy medical and student debt in order to inspire Americans with debt to unionize and attempt to purchase more of it and then abolish it.

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To prove that this is possible, last September, the Rolling Jubilee bought the $3.8m worth of Corinthians students’ loans for a total of $106,709.48 in cash. That’s about 3 cents for $1 of student debt. Additionally, the fund launched the Debt Collective to “create a platform for organization, advocacy and resistance by debtors”.

The result? The Corinthian 15, now the Corinthian 200, which consists of more than 200 Corinthian students who are currently on strike and refuse to pay down their student loan debt because, according to them, it is illegitimate. The Debt Collective organizers hope that students from ITT Tech and Art Institute will soon join the resistance movement.

“These schools made a big promise of what life would be like outside once they graduated. What [the students] are finding, what research shows, is that it was lies – that these students have been misled and misguided about what it looks like to graduate with debt,” said Dawn Lueck, one of the Debt Collective organizers. The problem is not just among recent, young graduates, either. “We have strikers that are on social security and disability and [the US government is] garnishing their benefits.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jessica King, one of the student strikers, holds fake money that asks: how far to free? Photograph: Ange Tran/Courtesy of Debt Collective

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 3% of those 65 and older carry student loan debt. That’s about 706,000 older households that owe $18.2bn. In order to pay down their student loan debt, the US Treasury takes about $130 a month from the social security benefits of anyone over 65 who still owes money. In 2013, the Treasury collected $150m that way.

Lueck, 35, was among those marching in New Orleans with the Debt Collective on Monday. Lueck, who owes as much as $117,000 in student loans, is no stranger to NAFSAA. She previously worked as a financial aid officer at ITT Tech.

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“I’ve been to these conferences for years, and man, we had a blast. It was a party. Everything was reimbursed,” Lueck told the Guardian, pointing out that this is often paid for with schools’ funds which come from students’ tuition.

The Debt Collective protesters had little hope of convincing the NAFSAA attendees to join their movement, but they hoped that their demonstration would make attendees rethink their role in the student debt crisis. One of the main problems, explained Lueck, is that students are not fully aware of the debt burden they are taking on while in school.

A study released in December found that six in ten college students did not really know how much they borrowed to pay for their first year of school. Additionally, about 28% of students with federal loans said that they had no student debt. To combat this lack of awareness around student debt, the Debt Collective has previously organized “know your debt” workshops to reeducate students and graduates on what debt they actually have.

According to Lueck, all this is not entirely financial aid advisers’ fault.

“When I was administering financial aid, never once did I feel like I was not giving them adequate information. I just didn’t know they needed more information than I was giving them,” she said. “This is not an individual issue. This is a systemic issue.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dawn Thompson is one of the students participating in the debt strike. The red square pinned to her chest is an international symbol of debt resistance. Photograph: Ange Tran/Courtesy of Debt Collective

Lueck is currently working three jobs – waitressing, working at a yacht club as well as freelancing in her chosen field – in order to make a living. The mother of two is worried about more than just her more than $100,000 in student debt. Her daughter will be turning 17 in a month and plans to attend college to become a dentist. The mother and daughter duo have been talking about how they will be able to pay for that.

This generational issue is why she is part of the Debt Collective movement and why she hopes that more Americans with student debt will join.

“It makes a lot of sense for students to band together,” said Hanna. “Certainly, a tactic that we will be developing is a shared strike.”