As a student working two jobs equalling approximately 25 + hours a week and as a student taking 18 credit hours as well, it is difficult to keep up with the non-traditional college students that i share this campus with. I’ve spent a long time thinking that perhaps the right to an education is not a right at all. There are still social classes and levels of achievement that can be made. It is unfair to say that just because my family never made any money that i shouldn’t be able to get good grades in my classes yet…that is what happens and it happens to many. With two jobs, my professors are appalled. I’ve had professors tell me to cut back on my hours. I told them if I cut back, I don’t eat. My peers are shocked that i even have one job, let alone two. Well, I tell them, things are easy when they’re just given to you.
In class a few weeks ago, i heard someone behind me say they had paid their first bill today. First of all, i was appalled by the fact that it was his first bill and he’s a sophomore in college. Secondly,i was appalled to find out what his first bill was. It was for Miami University of Ohio’s new student center. They are asking for donations from students and alumni. The cost for the new student center will be approximately 90 million dollars. His first bill paid to Miami. Isn’t that sweet.
Miami University’s Oxford campus is a classic college campus. Young 17 or 18 year olds come in their freshman year with young faces and they live in the dorms and make close-knit friends. It’s a beautiful campus with red brick and beautiful landscaping. A moderately safe, quaint college town. A college town certainly not created to accomodate those of us who have not been so fortunate in life. There are parties all around town from thursday through sunday and the click-clack of sorority girls in their high heels making their way to the bars “uptown” goes right along with the beat of the song of Oxford. A song called “Kids with Money Go Here” and “They’re The Ones That Succeed”.
I started at Miami’s Regional Campus in Hamilton, Ohio. I liked going there. I never felt bad for not having any money because the level of equality there is better dispersed than on the Oxford Campus. Everyone looks equal. No Prada or Coach bags there. Just hardworking, part-time or full-time employed students trying to earn their degree. The professors at the Hamilton campus understand this and make the appropriate accommodations for their students since they know they work or have children. It’s a more realistic way of higher learning. Students at the Hamilton Campus want to be there because they are trying to make their future brighter. They’re determination is fueled by they’re desire to be something and they’re desire to get the most of their money since they’re daddies and mommies aren’t paying for everything.
Students at the Oxford Campus want to party. But there are also many hardworking students that are there because they were smart enough to be accepted and fortunate enough to not have to work while being here. They are young; ages range from 18 to 21. I, as an almost 23-year-old, feel ancient sometimes around them. Due to my circumstances, I had to take a year off of school…students who go here don’t do that. They don’t pay their own rent or utilities or car insurance. They live on easy street.
These students are given such a great opportunity. They are able to take 20 credit hours each semester and get out of school in 4 years. They don’t have jobs. Their jobs consist of getting nothing less than an A on their papers and being heavily involved with their sororities or fraternities that their mommies and daddies pay for.
I met a girl recently that told me she worked 3 jobs. I asked her why, wondering if she is like me, perhaps a poor kid from a poor family that is putting herself through school. She told me, to her intense despair, that she had to pay for anything she wanted to buy and that she had a shopping addiction. I promptly told her of my situation and she promptly shut her mouth. Many students here don’t understand how lucky they really are.
There was a time while going here that I didn’t have enough money to pay for my medical supplies. I am a Type One Diabetic and I couldn’t afford my insulin needles. I started re-using them. A very dangerous thing but I figured it’s better to re-use them than run out. What would a rich Miami kid say about that? They can’t relate at all.
I’m not hostile about my position but I know that I am not alone in feeling so out of place just because I don’t shop at North Face and J.Crew (unimaginative companies by the way). I’ve browsed their stores and I wasn’t much impressed. Even if I had the money, I wouldn’t shop there.
That’s not the point though, the point is that the economic divide on the Oxford campus is extreme. There are some girls that come to school to find a husband. It’s called an M.R.S. degree. Their fathers send them here because it’s “safe” and they know that this is where the prominent fathers send their sons. A matchmaking game.
One may ask, “if you don’t like it then leave”. My answer is that I can’t. I qualify for free tuition here. This is the only way i can go to school at a university like Miami. As far as i am concerned, this is my one chance for survival as a 1st generation college student. I also think I’ve been placed here to give an insight to this divide. Although many may not care, I feel it’s important to note the economic divide in Oxford, not only within the university but also the city. Just outside of the walkable portion of the city, 3 trailer parks can be found with parents struggling to put clothes are their children’s backs. Oxford also has an ever plummeting unemployment rate. The rich, yet temporary, college students run the city and are the main support for the more expensive shops and restaurants Uptown along High Street. There are even restaurants that close or abbreviate their hours due to summer or winter break due to the fall in business when the students go home because many of those who live here year round don’t frequent the places.
But the problem is that I, no matter how much i study and push myself, can never be an A student. It is not possible because of the level of work produced by my peers (simply because they don’t have to work to feed themselves), the expectations that the professors hold of traditional Miami students, and how much i have to work to put a roof over my head.
One may ask, “why don’t you just get a loan”. My answer, my parents would have to co-sign but they don’t have good enough credit for loans. They may lose their house. What’s the solution to that? Scholarships? I’ve tried. Nothing so far.
Given these conditions, how is a student like myself able to succeed? The best education a university can offer? Yes. Available equally to all? Yes. Success guaranteed? No. A poor kid can’t get the same grades as a rich kid. It doesn’t happen. In this aspect, the poor are set up to fail. Like always.
Yet, that doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying. Despite the unrealistic guidelines set forth, the underdog can sometimes succeed. Perhaps i’ll be one of those who does. Being bitter about those who have money is pointless but analyzing the levels of class on this campus may lead to some realizations and that is why i wrote this piece. It is better to be an advocate of equality and realistic learning conditions than a person who complains.
My solution? The Federal Government should offer more aid to those who don’t have any help. They do have an “Independent” student status you can claim but the result is unsubsidized loans and in order to qualify, you have to be either; married, in the armed forces, have children, or have been disowned by your family. I am none of these. The answer to this is to expand the guidelines of an “independent” student in order to allow students like myself who are on their own but still receive the love of their families to succeed.
Perhaps then, education’s economic divide will begin to close.
jessicastringfield
