Gabrielle Hovendon reports:

CANTON – Occupy Wall Street has reached the north country.

On Wednesday St. Lawrence University was one of 75 colleges where students demonstrated as part of Occupy Colleges, an offshoot of the national Occupy Wall Street movement. The movement, loosely organized to protest social, political and economic inequalities stemming from what the protestors consider corporate greed, was represented at St. Lawrence by about 100 students and several dozen handmade signs:

“We are the future.”

“Sometimes I can't sleep at night worrying if this will be my last year @ SLU.”

“Sick of hypocrits (sic).”

“I just want people to listen to me.”

According to one of the event's organizers, senior Jordan A. Pescrillo, the students assembled and marched through the college's student center before proceeding to the business office, dining hall and president's office. Not affiliated with any club, the students read part of the Occupy Wall Street “constitution,” strummed guitars, waved an American flag and swung a hula hoop.

“We really just want people to start talking about ‘is the status quo of big business healthy, what sort of problems does it cause?'” said senior Alexander P. Epstein, a student demonstrator. “We're just trying to have a respectful dialogue about it because in the past there's been a lot of polarization.”

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