Occupy Rally at Stanford University

At Stanford University, a coalition of students, faculty, and staff created a forum for critical thinking and open discussion; the day included a rally where chants, spoken word, and song called for radical changes.

The teach-ins were designed to build awareness about social inequality, the erosion of American democracy, and the link between unrestrained growth and the current environmental crisis.

More than one teach-in addressed the inequality in healthcare in the US. James Holland Jones, Associate Professor of Anthropology, led one of the sessions, discussing mortality in the United States. Sean Reardon, Associate Professor of Education, facilitated discussion of the inequality in education, the title of that teach-in being, "The Widening Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor".

A rally in the afternoon drew hundreds of students and community members who heard former Stanford President Donald Kennedy say, "the system must change, we must be the ones to change it." Singing their message, the Raging Grannies called for the elimination of student debt burden and told the banks that were too big to fail: "You gambled with our money and you put us in the tank."