Mutual-aid

Ever since the ninth grade, Alondra Carmona had dreamed of attending Barnard College. When she first heard that Columbia had a sister school right across the street, she looked into Barnard’s campus and programs and immediately fell in love. Nearly four years later, she was elated to read the word “Congratulations” when she checked her application status. However, her celebrations were soon tempered by doubts about being able to afford her tuition.

For Calin Lisenbee, a student at the School of Nursing, Columbia held the promise of financial stability and success. Lisenbee dreamed of becoming a nurse and midwife, and Columbia’s competitive doctoral program was the key to kick-starting her career. While she was initially hesitant about the high cost of tuition, Lisenbee felt that the world-renowned education and the promise of good job prospects after graduation was worth it.

Across the country, counseling and recruitment have gone almost exclusively virtual, a transition that has laid bare the impact of class disparities on high school students’ access to higher education—and kept university admissions officers struggling to make up the difference.

In July, Nanette DiLauro, Barnard’s director of financial aid, wrote to students who received financial aid and had participated in the housing lottery in the spring semester. She informed them that they were eligible to receive a financial aid award of $7,846 to support off-campus room and board as a part of the campus reopening plans.

Faced with unsustainably dire housing and work conditions, graduate workers at Columbia are now joining thousands of other workers who have responded to the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19 by going on strike. In over 20 departments, many primary instructors and teaching assistants are refusing to teach Zoom classes, grade assignments, and administer exams. Other graduate workers are participating in collective actions such as teach-ins, petitions, and socially-distanced protests, and several hundred workers have committed to not paying rent in University-owned apartments come June 1.

On March 16, I saw a Barnard Alumnae Instagram post which asked alumnae to donate to help students in the current crisis. However, at that time, no announcements had been made about how students could obtain emergency funds to cover the costs students incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The next day, after the post received many comments from other Barnard students and myself, where we expressed concerns for low-income and housing-insecure students, it was updated to give information about how students could allegedly obtain emergency funds.

The School of General Studies should not recruit or accept students from low-income backgrounds if it cannot financially accommodate them.

When I was eight years old, my life changed without me even knowing. In 2007, Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science made it possible for students from families making under $50,000 (now $60,000) to even consider applying to their institutions, offering “loan-free and need-blind” financial aid covering tuition, room and board, and other fees such as health insurance.