The beer-soaked streets leading to Jackson Square in this city’s historic French Quarter bustled on Monday evening with characteristic revelry – and a short-lived, if chaotic, debate over student loan debt. “They’re coming,” a face-painted man in a full-body alligator costume yelled from his bicycle. “They’re two blocks away.” With that warning, several dozen student activists, staged strategically at a corner bar, finished their drinks, gathered their protest signs, and geared up for action. The target? Hundreds of college financial aid officers who were parading -- complete with Mardi Gras beads, marching band and police escort -- through the French Quarter to celebrate the end of the second day of their annual gathering here.

July 21, 2015 ・ From Inside Higher Ed