Triage
This semester, I’m dropping the Berkeley College Orchestra. The time commitment is small—two hours a week on Sundays—but it’s become too much for me to handle. My reading and writing for my seminars routinely keeps me up to 3:00 a.m. most weeknights, and my days are consumed by pursuing interests I never realized I had: leftist politics, humor writing, Gender Studies, etc.
If I had a campus job, I wouldn’t be able to do most of this. It would be much more difficult for me to keep up with Directed Studies, and I’d have to triage everything else—something that would break my heart. My ability to work this hard doing things that don’t pay a dime is a privilege, but it shouldn’t have to be.
When I applied, I remember reading the two questions admissions officers ask when selecting the new class: “Who is likely to make the most of Yale’s resources?” and “Who is likely to contribute most to Yale’s academic community?” If I had to work a job to pay for my education, I would face an unfair hurdle in attempting to do both these things.
This should be a place of equal opportunity, but it isn’t. And that makes me really angry.
If I had a campus job, I wouldn’t be able to do most of this. It would be much more difficult for me to keep up with Directed Studies, and I’d have to triage everything else—something that would break my heart. My ability to work this hard doing things that don’t pay a dime is a privilege, but it shouldn’t have to be.
When I applied, I remember reading the two questions admissions officers ask when selecting the new class: “Who is likely to make the most of Yale’s resources?” and “Who is likely to contribute most to Yale’s academic community?” If I had to work a job to pay for my education, I would face an unfair hurdle in attempting to do both these things.
This should be a place of equal opportunity, but it isn’t. And that makes me really angry.
