Students from over 100 college campuses across the U.S. protested for tuition-free education Thursday in what has become known as "The Million Student March."
According to The Washington Post, the march has been months in the making and according to a coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project was motivated by the national campaigns to boost minimum wage.
"The march is about mobilizing students across the country to shape the national conversation about what college costs look like today, especially in an age of student debt, low wages and high tuition," Student Labor Action Project coordinator Beth Huang told the Post.
The movement quickly picked up steam throughout the day and immediately started trending on social media. The students involved were demanding a $15 minimum wage for campus employees, in addition to the free tuition and debt cancellation.
"As youth from working class communities, we witness the attacks the ruling class wages against our people," the Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee at the City University of New York said in a statement to Newsweek. "Our educational opportunities are being squashed...because the university does not work to serve our communities but instead invests in private prisons, militarizes our campuses and locks most of us out of education by raising tuition and cutting programs that benefit working class students."
Despite receiving a lot of the report, protesters also received a fair amount of criticism. Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto who grilled one organizer on how she intended to finance the proposal.
The topic has also become a part of recent political discourse as Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders has been vocal about his plan to bring an end to student debt.