I feel like I’m in a very good position because I was able to use the DSA and get paid research work over the summer. But I know some of the people I’m planning on living with next year are just planning on getting our apartment to live in and do online classes from, and that’s not something I’m able to consider. If I did online classes I would have to do them from home– ironically, the only way I could move to New Haven is if I had a job there rather than taking classes. Only if Yale gives financial aid that covers everything as if you were living on campus could I move there as a student. It feels like there’s a big divide between people whose financial situation allows them to just move to New Haven and take classes, and people who have to wait for Yale’s financial aid decision, like me. Yale needs to have transparency about their financial aid this year and the options that students have, so that we can make decisions about school and about housing. There has to be something to account for the fact that we won’t be able to get the same hours and jobs. It would really help me going forward to be able to be employed in my current student job even if I’m not taking classes. It would take Yale fully eliminating the SIC to really provide the access to education that I was promised in the first place.

Adin Feder, he/him. 2021, ES.