Chatham Students Protest Electronically

Chatham University students took to their cameras today to protest Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s proposed tax on college tuition.

More than 100 of the school’s on-campus population of about 600 wrote personalized messages on white boards and sent photos of themselves to the mayor’s office.

Chatham Class of 2010 President Jenn Hollern says the students were tired of being politely ignored.

“We’ve written letters, written editorials, written to the newspapers. We’ve talked with members of Council, tried to talk with the mayor but haven’t been successful, says Hollern. “We’ve called with emails. We’ve done all of these peaceful, not-so-aggressive tactics and obviously gotten no results, so we wanted to organize a protest.”

Hollern says they were too busy with final exams to organize in the flesh, but she says this electronic version only helps the students’ appeal by showing their ingenuity and value to the city.

“This way of organizing shows that beautifully,” says Hollern.

She says the students have been taken as "financial hostages" to get the city's educational institutions to pay more to Pittsburgh in lieu of taxes.

The students’ protest pictures can be found on Facebook, and a 30-second video clip has been sent to all City Council members and the mayor.