The Keys to Sterling
I came to Yale as an undocumented student with the hope of being able to afford an education. I thought that it would be enough to know books and study languages to somehow make it through the broken immigration system. Although this has turned out to be entirely false, I am glad that my delusion led me to pursue and discover what I enjoy. At some point I believed Yale too would encourage me to pursue what I enjoy. Yale's financial aid policies make it so that I can't study as much as I would like, and so that I am constantly forced to give up what I enjoy doing, reading and learning new languages, for the sake of a trivial job for which I must be thankful. Yale is stealing from me. Yale's multi-billion dollar endowment means that it owns people's time-- without their permission, without their consent. Yale has the ability to make people do unpleasant things and be thankful for it---office jobs, library jobs all of which I have held unwillingly but inevitably because I am not rich enough to own even my own time. When Yale admitted me on full financial aid, I was not aware that through its summer and work study contribution, it was also hiring cheap, ununionized and unofficial labor. Several hours a week, Yale asks me to leave the library and spend time in an office serving its trivial ends so I may survive and so that it may continue to own my time and others' times.
Yale has no way of dealing with undocumented students when it comes to financial aid. I am neither an international student nor an American citizen. Having no land means Yale forces to buy its health care plan without marking it as one of the major costs of being here.
The president of the university receives the keys of Sterling upon inauguration. The university's wealth is the key to people's bodies and their time. And they aren’t just any bodies. Let us not be confused about the whiteness of Yale's wealth. Yale uses mostly brown bodies and black bodies for its labor. A class at Yale is unnecessary to learn about institutionalized racism: Yale's financial aid policies are a fine example. Yale, I want the keys to Sterling. I don't want the halfway access of the brown working class scholar. I want to stay there because none of what you have belongs to you anyway. You are not the master of these halls. They rebel against you. They want no door. They want no keys. They want no guard.
Yale has no way of dealing with undocumented students when it comes to financial aid. I am neither an international student nor an American citizen. Having no land means Yale forces to buy its health care plan without marking it as one of the major costs of being here.
The president of the university receives the keys of Sterling upon inauguration. The university's wealth is the key to people's bodies and their time. And they aren’t just any bodies. Let us not be confused about the whiteness of Yale's wealth. Yale uses mostly brown bodies and black bodies for its labor. A class at Yale is unnecessary to learn about institutionalized racism: Yale's financial aid policies are a fine example. Yale, I want the keys to Sterling. I don't want the halfway access of the brown working class scholar. I want to stay there because none of what you have belongs to you anyway. You are not the master of these halls. They rebel against you. They want no door. They want no keys. They want no guard.
