more on what we won (and didn't win) last thursday

first of all, the fact that we won something on last thursday was in itself a victory. the fact that exactly a week after we sat in the admissions office, and a week and two days after we asked difficult questions at the forum, and in the midst of a campaign involving thousands of students, parents, alumnae/i, and other supporters at yale, levin announced a significant move forward, was great. there was no waiting until the summer or until after another round of SCAFA meetings or until last week's press had ended. there was significant movement on our timeline. (i have to ask, does SCAFA even really exist? because once the extent to which we were for real was apparent, i sure never heard anyone defer to it or even mention it again.)

by my count, we won three and a fraction things from the UOC platform. we won a decreased family contribution for low-income families, increased recruiting in low-income areas (let's make sure that it actually happens), and yearly trips home for international students. the fraction of an item we won is financial aid for summer study-abroad programs, which addresses some sliver of the concerns in our "summer" bulletpoint. in a broader sense, then, we've gotten what we asked for in terms of increasing economic diversity; we've gotten a couple of small pieces of what we want in terms of decreasing the burden on students, though the large piece of halving the self-help remains; and we haven't gotten anything in terms of increasing the transparency and accessibility of the financial aid office, although my sense is that we could definitely win updates to the SFS website, financial aid training for freshman counselors, and a financial aid info session by the end of the semester.

and the things we won are by no means minor. harvard's economic-diversity initiative increased fee-waiver requests by nearly 50 percent, and it also increased the number of african-american applicants by over 28 percent. if, as tom conroy says, yale's new plan affects 15 percent of yale applicants, then that's some 750 current students (and in the future significantly more, it is to be hoped) as well as prospective students from more than half of the households in the united states for whom yale is going to be significantly more affordable, and that's wonderful.

and--we haven't really put this out there yet, but i think it's important that we do--i think we've won significant ideological concessions from the university as well. last summer's alumnae/i magazine saw levin, in a q&a entitled "yale and the poor" (yes, really), having "mixed feelings" about harvard's financial aid initiative. levin says, "I wonder whether it is in fact a step forward to say, 'Now it's free.' In my view, families ought to have a stake, however small, in their children's education." but now yale has made the step forward (even $5000 forward of harvard) and acknowledged, in terms of policy if not explicitly, that for a family to "have a stake. . . in their children's education," they don't necessarily need to be doling out money. and so yale's whole messed-up notion of "coinvestment" begins to fall apart.

and this brings me to the not-wonderful thing, which is that around 40 percent of yale students are still required to contribute around $6500 per year to their educations, through summer earnings, loans, and term-time work, while the rest of students are not. and, yes, i'm still one of those people, and one of the students for whose family the recent reforms made no direct difference, given the relatively high salaries of unionized public-school teachers in rochester that put my family slightly out of the affected range. but we've blown apart the university's notion of the parent contribution, so there's no reason why we can't blow apart the university's notion of the student contribution--that for students on financial aid to be adequately invested in their education they need to pay $6500 per year--as well. if we're going to send a clear signal to low-income families about affordability, then we also need to send a clear signal to all students on financial aid about equality of experience. the call for equality of access, experience, and opportunity hasn't changed.

NO FAMILY CONTRIBUTION FOR FAMILIES MAKING $45,000 OR LESS

Finally, some real movement on financial aid:

Yale President Richard Levin announced substantial changes to Yale's undergraduate financial aid policy this morning, eliminating the expected parental contribution for families with incomes less than $45,000. Families with incomes between $45,000 and $60,000 can also expect to see the University reduce their required contributions, Levin said. The University also announced greater funding for international student travel and a larger recruitment effort for low-income students. The Yale Corporation approved the changes at its meeting last weekend, he said. Yale's decision follows a move Harvard University made last year to eliminate parental contributions for low-income families. "We think we are announcing an important message for low income families in America and throughout the world, that Yale is accessible," Levin said.

Levin said he did not make up his mind to eliminate the parental contribution until after an open forum on financial aid sponsored by the Yale College Council last week. At the forum last week and at a later sit-in at the admissions office, students protested the University's previous financial aid policies and called on Levin sharply reduce both the parental contribution and student selfelp portions of aid. Levin said he considered eliminating the student self-help contribution this year as well, but the University's budget would not allow him to enact both changes simultaneously. "It's not possible this year to do both," Levin said. "This seemed like the better option." Yale College Dean Peter Salovey said he thinks the reduction in parental contributions will alleviate the burden on students at Yale because many of the students working long hours on campus are doing so to help pay off their family's expected contribution. "Students have explicitly told us these stories," Salovey said.

The University also announced this morning an increase in the student budget for international students, allowing them one free trip home each year. Currently the University picks up the tab for one trip home over four years for each international student. Earlier this month, Yale officials announced a program to fund Yale-approved summer study and internships abroad for undergraduate financial aid recipients, the first program of its kind at a top American university. Yale officials said this morning that they will also intensify student recruitment in low-income areas across the country by initiating direct mail and e-mail campaigns, and encouraging current Yale students to visit high schools in low-income districts when they return home.

We made clear last week that moving on either the student or the family contribution is not enough. So there's more work to do.

Come meet tonight at 10 in Dwight Hall to plan what comes next.

Buttons for financial aid reform

Right as I post this, folks are in the process of assembling hundreds of beautiful, orange buttons saying "I support financial aid reform." If you'd like to purchase a button for a suggested $5 donation toward our court fees ($92 for each of us), or if you'd like to donate toward the court fees regardless of the button, contact Phoebe or Alyssa. A paypal setup will be available soon.

Also, I just added a hit/stats counter to this site. If, like me, you're into that sort of thing, let me know and I'll pass along the username and password.

After President Levin's open forum on the 22nd, I left feeling thoroughly incensed, not by President Levin's lack of preparation, or even because President Levin abruptly ended the forum at 9:20, but by President Levin's complete insensitivity towards the struggles of financial aid students. At the forum, President Levin asked us to choose our higher priority: reduction of either the family or self-help contribution of the financial aid package. But paying tuition is not a matter of my mother writing out a $40,000 check. Neither is it solely my decision to work a certain number of hours or borrow a certain amount in loans. Instead, it is a conversation between my mother and me. How many hours a week can she work to support us? How much of my own time and savings can I sacrifice to help? How does a family whose combined assets are a fraction of a year's tuition overcome fear of debt to take out large loans, Levin's wholesale answer to all financial aid worries? Decreasing only one number ignores the fact that in my family and many others, education is a joint venture.

Yet most shocking was Levin's dismissal of students who are dramatically affected by financial aid. Apparently, since people who work over 10 hours per week number only “one or two hundred,” they shouldn't factor into financial aid reform. Apparently, struggling students don't fill out aid applications correctly, or don't take out enough loans. Apparently, it is fair for students to have drastically different college experiences because one group is restricted by Yale's financial aid policy. Apparently, one to two hundred students just don't count. And as a student who is ­ admittedly and unashamedly in that highest range of need-based grants, I am devastated that President Levin thinks this is the case.

Now, in response to the News' View in Friday's Yale Daily News, it strikes me that, just like President Levin at last week's Open Forum, the YDN seems to have misinterpreted the situation at hand. First of all, the comment was made that the UOC may have “lost its consensus" among Yale students by staging a sit-in and rally. However, if the editor had done some simple math, they might have realized that with up to 150 student protesters and 15 students in the Admissions building itself, there was no way that this could be a UOC-only event. In fact, the students who planned and organized the event, and were captured on video and in photographs on Thursday by the AP, the New York Times, and local Connecticut broadcasting stations, represented a wide range of campus groups and individual views. Many didn't even know what "UOC" stood for until the day of the rally. So by automatically grouping everyone at the protest under some imagined UOC umbrella, the YDN itself not only alienates a large number of Yale students, but underestimates their capacity to make an informed decision to support a cause.

Unfortunately, it seems that the YDN would prefer that Yale students continue to live in the "great middle," something which I've experienced far more often as oblivion and apathy than true compromise or moderation. And so, if it takes a sit-in, a rally, and a "loud enough megaphone" to encourage Yale students to become aware of and involved in the world around them, and to take a stand on the issues that directly concern them -- whether it be in favor of the sit-in or against financial aid reform -- then I don't think anything whatsoever has been "lost."

Photos from inside

They're not of the greatest quality, but check out these photos from Gloria (they're also on the UOC website):

More thoughts on Thursday's action

(from here.)

i guess i'll add some of my own thoughts about what happened on thursday that aren't of the "we're inside right now! come to the rally as i write this!" nature. on thursday, hundreds of students were no longer going to take being disrespected, ignored, and considered either exceptions or unimportant by levin and his administration. on thursday, we stood up together for equality of access, experience, and opportunity as a stronger undergraduate movement than has been seen on this campus for a long time. on thursday, yale may have made all the "PR moves" (as levin likes to describe other financial aid reforms) it wanted--sure, they stationed a couple of administrators shuffling papers at the front desk of the admissions office for two full hours after the woman who actually works there left, so the building could "close" only after there would be no live coverage on the 6 pm news (6:40--such a logical building-closing time), and, sure, they brought in plainclothes police in an unmarked vehicle who processed us at--irony of ironies--the desk of jim nondorf (director of undergraduate admissions) [julie and gloria's quotes in the crimson explain all of these theatrics well]--but, whatever, we did something real, stood up for something real, and all of yale's politicking cannot and will not take that away from us.

i have tremendous respect for the other 14 undergrads with whom i spent thursday inside the admissions office, and for the extent to which we all overcame our individual fears and hangups to do something wonderful together, and also for the innumerable (i guess that's a slight exaggeration...slight) folks outside who had the much more difficult job of making things happen...and happen...and happen...and happen for what turned out to be ten cold hours. from the TV footage i've seen--and i can't wait to see our own videos--everything going on outside appears to have been amazing. the fight for aid reform certainly isn't over--we took our campaign to all of the members of the yale corporation yesterday--but, on thursday, we took a huge step forward. we've come a long way since myra smith told me last may that financial aid reforms were what constituted the "problem of class" on ivy league campuses. we've had more than 300 conversations about financial aid, put together a platform out of these conversations signed by over 1100 students, rallied for aid reform on martin luther king day, and, on thursday, let not only students all over the yale campus but, in fact, families all over the united states know that we will not stand for our administration's dismissal of our concerns and disrespect for us, for unequal access on this campus. and now, the fight will continue.

Some thoughts on yesterday

(cross-posted from here)

Tuesday night, after four months since receiving the platform for real financial aid reform borne out of our hundreds of canvassing interviews and supported by over a thousand students, President Levin had a great opportunity to offer real solutions, or to take to heart the voices of students who had. And he blew it. He opened the under thirty minutes on financial aid by trying to discuss our platform and the parallel Yale College Council in terms which made clear just how empty his claim that he couldn’t respond until February 22 because he was carefully reviewing our proposal had been. He told students he wanted feedback on whether Yale should make some change on the student contribution or the family contribution, insisting that Yale “can’t lead on every dimension.” Not something one would hear Levin say if we were talking about different dimensions of, say, scientific research. Yale can and should lead on drawing a diverse group of students and on fostering a more equal and more integrated experience for those who are here. A choice between the student contribution and the family contribution is an impossible choice. And it’s a meaningless choice for those students working additional hours to pay what Yale expects from their parents as well. But when those students spoke up Tuesday night, Levin responded by making facial expressions roughly approximating Bush’s during the first debate while questioning their honesty and describing them all as extreme cases. He even went so far as to conjecture, with a shrug, that if there was a problem it only affected a couple hundred students. I’m not sure whether it was this baseless claim, or the implication that the quality of life of a couple hundred students could not be an urgent issue for the university, which angered more of us. So it should have come as no surprise to Levin that students left deeply disappointed and personally insulted.

Yesterday we demonstrated that we’re not willing to sit back and wait for President Levin to offer what he thinks is a sufficient proposal for change, and we’re not willing to settle for a proposal which makes modest change in either the student contribution or the family contribution. So fifteen of us showed up at the Admissions Office as a tour group was leaving and let Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw know that we didn’t plan to leave without a meaningful commitment from Levin to comprehensive reform. Dean Shaw told us we’d have to be out of the building by 5 PM, passed the message along to Levin, and then disappeared into selection committee. We never heard from Levin, despite enough phone calls from students inside and outside of the building, alumni, and parents that the phone began going directly to voicemail. Unfortunately, it appears Levin would rather arrest his students than talk to him.

Folks working in the office were by and large very friendly to us, with a few notable exceptions, and we had a number of productive conversations with some of them about our campaign. We weren’t able to communicate directly with any more prospective students, because the Admissions Office was soon locked to the public and tours were moved to the Visitor’s Center. Because this was signified only with a sign on the door to the Admission’s Office, our folks on the outside got ample opportunities to talk to somewhat confused visiting families about what we were fighting for, to generally very positive response by all accounts, before giving them directions to the new location. The Admissions Office made the peculiar decision to communicate with those families only by yelling at them through the window. The low point during the day in our interactions with others in the building was during the noontime rally outside when Phoebe opened and leaned out of a window to address the crowd and Deputy Secretary Martha Highsmith physically yanked her back into the building (fortunately, the whole thing was caught on camera by Channel 8). Not long after that, they cut off all internet access in the building.

There are no words which can describe my admiration for the tremendous organizing undergrads, as well as folks from Local 34, Local 35, GESO, and the broader community did outside all day yesterday, in constantly shifting conditions and fairly unfavorable weather. Every time a door opened and we heard surging chants, I think each of us was moved and inspired. They did amazing work, talking to visiting families, sending a delegation to President Levin’s office in Betts House, finding Yale Corporation member Margaret Marshall on the way to a Master’s Tea and calling on her to come visit us, dropping into dining halls to share news, and standing outside yelling through the cold for hours.

One of their greatest accomplishments was keeping a powerful crowd outside for the nearly three hours over which Yale made gestures and having us arrested and then, presumably in hopes of waiting out the crowd and the cameras, chose to delay. It had been a full two hours (much of it spent singing, which inspired at least one administrator to turn up “We are the Champions” in his office) since the time we had been told that morning was closing when plainclothes police showed up in an unidentified van and Martha Highsmith had someone videotape her (despite some technical difficulties) reading to us from the Undergraduate Regulations. When we made clear that we still had no intention of leaving without a commitment from Levin to a financial aid policy which better reflects the best values of the university, the police told us were under arrest. We were taken in pairs into Jim Nondorf’s office, cited for simple trespass and led out, singing “Carry It On” and holding our citations, to a still strong crowd. There we shared some stories with each other and ate the pizza that they had been unable to get to us while we were inside before heading back to campus.

On the eve of the Yale Corporation's meeting, right before the budget deadline, we mobilized a new breadth and depth of student support, leveraged new pressure, took our message to new audiences, and demonstrated the urgency of the issue. Now it's time to keep building.

We'll Be Back!

Apologies for the lack of updates throughout the afternoon; Internet access inside the Admissions Office was cut off around 1 pm. However, now for the update. . .

President Levin refused to meet with students all day, despite the continuous phone calls and emails he was receiving from students, parents, alums, and other members of the Yale and New Haven communities. Dean Shaw, as well, could not find the time in his schedule to meet with students except for a brief visit in the morning. But this certainly did not stop students from making their voices of heard--hundreds of students joined us outside throughout the day.

Around 4:30, over a hundred students congregated outside for two hours as evening came. Unfortunately, despite these students' banging on the door and placing continuous phone calls to the office next to where we were sitting, officials refused to open the door and let the food in.

At 6:30, we were told that the building was closing in 10 minutes. At 6:40, refusing to leave, we we took arrest, were issued citations by Yale police inside the Admissions Office, and then were escorted out the side door to a crowd of cheering students.

As we said at the rally afterward, We'll be back. Financial aid reform will come to Yale.

Channel 8 Video

Check out the lengthy Channel 8 coverage of today's action, featuring the creative and inspiring chants and posters and the moving speeches of the hundreds of students rallying on the outside (and also the window incident).

Rally!

Hundreds of students have been rallying outside for the past hour, having marched from Cross Campus to outside the Admissions Office, as I post this. All of us inside can hear them, and we know we're all in this together. I went to the window to address the rallying students outside. Several of us spoke to them on the phone, sharing our collective stories. Amazingly, Martha Highsmith physically removed me from the window and closed it, not allowing me to speak, with the concern that "the window is going to fall on your head." But hundreds of students outside and all of us inside saw this moment, and we will not let Yale divide us, whether the window and door are open or whether they are closed. We will not be silenced. What do we want? Aid reform! When do we want it? Now!

AP Story

Check it out.

The group of about 15 students called on President Richard Levin to reduce by half the amount of money students on financial aid are required to pay. The students say families earning less than $40,000 should not have to contribute any money.

We plan on staying here until President Levin commits to the reforms we're calling for," said Josh Eidelson, a junior political science major.

Rally at 12:20

If you're in the New Haven area and support this campaign, then there's nothing more important for you to do than be outside at 12:20 pm at the campus-wide urgent rally for financial aid reform. Be there.

Financial Aid Reform: Equality of Access, Experience, and Opportunity for All

Our demands for reform are summarized in the Undergraduate Organizing Committee's financial aid reform platform, which came out of conversations among over 300 undergraduates. Read the complete platform, and get more informtation about our campaign, at the UOC website at www.yaleuoc.com. We wrote the platform in October and have since delivered it to President Levin multiple times. Levin refused our demand to meet with him by Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, turning down several requests to discuss our platform with students. When refusing to meet with us on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, he announced the financial aid-themed open forum that took place on this past Tuesday evening. However, at the open forum, Levin showed little understanding of the financial aid process and disrespected the hundreds of students in the room expressing support for financial aid reform. He made no commitment to reform and spoke to students for fewer than 30 minutes. He blew off This is not acceptable; the time has come for reform. We are demanding reform to the self-help and parent contributions, and we are demanding it now.

Please join us outside the Admissions Office, 38 Hillhouse Av., at any time today. The word has come in from folks outside that tours have been rerouted to the Visitors Center and prospective students are no longer being encouraged to enter the office, so we know we're making progress. We'll keep you updated, folks.

Financial Sit-In at the Admissions Office

At 10:25 this morning, a group of 15 Yale undergraduates entered the Admissions Office at 38 Hillhouse Avenue, seeking a commitment from Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Richard Shaw and University President Richard Levin to give significant monetary increases to both the student and family contributions. We will not leave until this reform happens. This is the live update from inside the office. We have spoken with Dean Shaw, who has said that he "concurs" with many of the reforms we demand and has relayed our concerns to President Levin. We are continuing to contact President Levin to relay our demands that he come talk to us and agree to reform to both the self-help and parent contributions. Please help out the effort and call Levin's office yourself at (203) 432-2550. If you are press, please get in touch with Josh Eidelson, a student inside the office, at (203) 430-2327.

WTNH Story

Read it here.

Rally Is Now

The rally is starting now (on Cross Campus--if you're substantially late, come here). The report from here is that the building is on lockdown and folks are shouting out the window directing prospective students and their families to the Visitors' Center. Keep up the calls to Levin's office...

Anonymous said...

I come from a home where my both my parents don't work. My mom since immigrating to the US has always been to sick to work. My father was injured in a work related accident nearly 13 years ago and has been unable to work ever since. While growing up, to provide for myself I worked numerous jobs after school and otherwise. I've done this since I was 13. Since I've worked for so long, for so many years, my income is factored in to my financial aid. In fact, my package includes no parent contribution but rather, I am solely responsible for the cost of my education. Though the amount is not as tremendous as I expect many other students pay, it's often large when considering that other expenses need to be factored it as well.
If I were paying just for tuition, my summer earnings would suffice. However, clothing, food, books, etc. consume a large portion of my wages. I do not have the luxury of having my parents finance many expenses. They try the best they can but in large part it depends on me. I think the University neglects this point. As such, I am often limited by what I can do during summer months. Essentially, rather than pursuing internships, as they are mostly unpaid, I have no other choice but to work. This severely limits my ability to pursue my aspirations and career interests.

Post your stories here:

This is the place to share your story. It need not be a horror story. It simply should be your own experiences.

Too often, when we arrive at Yale as frosh, we're faced with an unnecessary stigma because personal finances are a taboo issue on this campus. This is a way to shed light on our experiences with financial aid, and to explain to each other how your financial situation has affected your time here.

I know many of us have incredibly compelling stories. Some, like my own, are not as 'shocking' but still speak to the difficulties that many of us deal with because we don't know how to 'trick the system.'

Well, here you go: everything you ever wanted to know about your fellow financial aid students.

Peace !