During COVID-19, being able to continue my jobs with the Yale Sustainable Food Project and the Office of Sustainability remotely was really meaningful and important. In addition, being paid for my Film Studies department job– which couldn’t go remote– was so helpful because I have an apartment lease that makes things a lot more stressful– I have to be making money somehow whether I am there or not. When I went home, that allowed me to tutor as a volunteer rather than through a paid program. It felt much more meaningful to help someone who needed it much more.
One thing that’s been on my mind is that inequality has really come forward recently in ways that it wasn’t to people in power, and that it’s crazy that Yale is expecting students on financial aid to work and pay the SIC. Going forward, I really need the administration to be clear about student work and how that works when people are taking semesters off, and to support students in their jobs no matter where they are. Students should have access to full-need financial aid, so I am calling on Yale to eliminate the SIC.
Gavi Welbel, she/her. 2022, PM.
