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Cornell Students Challenge University Power at “Students vs. Billionaires” Town Hall

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke to Ithaca students about tuition hikes, sexual violence, free speech, and university governance.

Inside the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center, the room buzzed with excited chatter as students packed the venue, eager to see Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak at the “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall. About 1,200 people, some whom lined up hours in advance, attended the September 27 function. According to More Perfect University event host Elise Joshi, more than 900 additional attendees were turned away at the door.

For Joshi, the scale of the turnout reflected the premise of the event: Give students the microphone and let them decide what matters.

As Samuel Moyn posits in his new book Gerontocracy in America, an “oldigarchy” intent on hoarding wealth and power has come to determine how the US is governed. In this political landscape, young people have reported record levels of dissatisfaction with the rapidly ageing ruling class.

More Perfect University, a subset of the advocacy journalism nonprofit More Perfect Union, focuses on strengthening collective student power to challenge billionaire influence over political and economic systems. According to Joshi, “When you let students ask the questions that matter to them, they’re going to ask damn good questions.”

Joshi opened the evening by describing the group’s mission: using storytelling and advocacy journalism to spotlight issues students face—from rising tuition and housing costs to restrictions on free speech—and to connect those experiences across campuses. Pulling it off, she said, “takes a village.”

This is especially true when, according to Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC) chair Matthew Knudsen, “Campus has been forcefully depoliticized, with bans on protests and attacks on historically political cultural organizations.”

“The university wants students to view the world through an apolitical lens, but as students we have a responsibility to understand how systems driven by politics and ideology impact every corner of our........

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