The Student Freeze Coalition made its second demonstration against the 2.5 percent tuition hike for next year. In contrast to the tame public forum of their first demonstration, the 20-30 students who participated loudly chanted slogans and drummed on paint buckets while carrying brown cardboard signs reading “I am not a Loan.”

The students gathered outside the Student Center by the statue of Monsignor John Egan. The protest was staged in a position to take advantage of the rush hour traffic on Sheffield Avenue. As the cars slowly moved through the intersection, several drivers honked their horns in support of the student demonstration.

“The first thing I want to say is that tuition is too damn high,” said Erez Bleicher, an organizer for the SFC, as he addressed those gathered for the demonstration. Bleicher went on to describe how the tuition hike and student debt in general is representative of larger problems with the world, referencing both the Military-industrial complex and Prison-industrial complex as endemic of the same issues.

“What is our university, DePaul University, doing for justice?” said Donovan Singer addressing the protesters. Singer questioned how DePaul was living up to the legacy of Monsignor John Egan, who he referenced as a great man who stood hand in hand with Martin Luther King.

Chanting “Teachers, students, staff unite! One struggle, one fight!” and “They say tuition hike, we say student strike!” to the beat of drumming, the SFC marched from the Student Center around campus. Protestors caught the attention of those on campus as they marched down Kenmore   Avenue. From the Arts and Letters building and the Schmidt Academic Center, students looked down from the second and third story windows. Some pulled out their phones to film the protest.

The marching protest sparked conversations among the students they passed. One student remarked simply that it would be nice to have to lower tuition, another joked that they didn’t think professors would work for free. One person shouted “Get a job!” from their car as they drove by.

The demonstration drew the attention of Public Safety as they entered the SAC still chanting and drumming. Public Safety officers immediately responded by ordering them to be quiet. The SFC demonstration not only refused to comply, but they also disregarded Public Safety officers and chanted louder, cheering as they left the SAC.

After the march through the SAC, two Public Safety officers told the demonstrators they would be kept from entering another building on campus. However less than half an hour later, the demonstration marched into the Student Center unscathed.

Bleicher and other members of the SFC said they were unaware that Public Safety had claimed to keep them out of school buildings but called the idea abhorrent. Responding to the claim that the protest was disruptive and disrespectful to students who were in class or studying in the SAC, Bleicher answered that disruptions are often necessary to affect social change.

“DePaul certainly respects the right of its students to voice their opinions, as long as they do so in ways that do not violate university policies and/or the Code of Student Responsibility. Last evening’s student protest was an appropriate exercise of those rights,” said Cynthia Lawson, vice president for public relations and communications for DePaul. “DePaul is sensitive to the fact that the prolonged economic downturn has impacted all our students and their families. We continue to look for ways to reduce costs and keep tuition increases as low as possible.”

As the protest wound down in the Student Center, Bleicher tried to persuade the group to stage a sit-in, as Occupy DePaul did this time last year. Occupy DePaul was threatened by the administration to be removed from the building by police and the students involved would lose their scholarships, however the school didn’t follow up on either threat. Even with Bleicher’s insistence that there would be no repercussions for staging a sit-in, only five of the 20 students voted to stay the night.

After the vote didn’t pass, Bleicher made a brief comment and a renewed call to action to those in attendance saying demonstrations like a sit-in would be necessary.