SIPA STORIES: Poor people deserve to want more

Photo by Chenwei Yao

This article is part of a series on the experiences of low-income students at SIPA, including stories from Kat Sewon Oh, Kelsie Greene, and Ejona Bakalli.

By Casidy Cunningham (MPA ’23)

My entire college experience has been defined by my and my parents’ socioeconomic status. It’s hard to ignore. For background, my mom has severe anxiety, to the point where she is unable to leave the house, and she lost her job when I was in elementary school due to carpal tunnel. She has been unemployed since. My dad has been the sole provider for our household up until I came to college, when I was able to start sending back money from Columbia refunds and work-study. 

My dad works as a fabricator making, delivering, and installing cabinets and countertops. He was first laid off back in 2010 or 2011, and was later rehired by the same company for a much lower salary. He kept this same job for years, as it allowed us to scrape by and there’s not a lot of other work opportunities in my hometown. Usually, you have to make a daily 90-minute commute to Santa Barbara if you want a better job. We didn’t have a working car from the time I was in middle school to my freshman year of college, from 2012 to 2018, so staying at his job was the safest option.

He kept this job to provide for my mom and I, even though he suffered workplace discrimination for the 12-plus years he worked there. Being the only Black person, my dad was never given a raise until my junior year of college, when he was finally given an extra $2 per hour. His coworkers — Hispanic, white, etc. — received raises and would tell him, so he could ask for one as well. 

I made more money per hour working as a GS-4 intern for a U.S. Air Force base the summer after my freshman year of college than the $15 per hour minimum wage that my dad was making at his job. He would get sent home for days on end whenever his boss got angry, and told not to return back until his boss called him. I remember trying to research how to make a report or who to go to for help within California’s different legal processes my sophomore year, and sobbing in my friend’s room because I was stressed and guilty to be here at college with food, water, electricity, and more. 

My uncle has since bought my dad a used car, and my dad has left his old workplace. After leaving the last hellhole of a company, and now having a car, my dad found a job in Santa Barbara last year. Everything was good. My dad was happy at the job, but the commute was hard to do every day, having to wake up at 3 a.m. to be there by 5 a.m. at my dad’s age doing the type of heavy work he does. That boss helped my dad find a job back in our hometown through connections he had. My dad was even happier working at the new job in our town, making more than he ever did and being able to be home by 4 p.m.

But, it seems like my family’s luck always runs out. Three weeks ago, my dad was laid off. The new job said my dad worked too slowly and that they wanted someone who would make countertops and cabinets, even though he made it clear when they hired him that he now primarily does countertops and they were fine with it.

How many times do we, as poor people, have to pull ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep trying just to survive, no matter what we do? We can’t afford to fix our indoor plumbing, we don’t have hot water the majority of the time, and we have to DIY every single thing. I’m buying my dad’s flight to see me graduate next month with the little money I have.

Every time we get somewhere, it’s ripped away just as fast. I can hear the defeat and stress in my parents’ voices every time I call home. So yeah, college is hard. It’s even harder when your family is struggling to get by and you feel guilty every day for making it out. And so, my undergraduate experience ends how it began: constantly worrying about my parents, while I am myself worried about my own finances and ability to send back money. It is so tiring. I’m thankful for everything my family and I have, but why can’t poor people want more?

I also have a work-study job that makes $15 per hour with the Columbia Athletics department. I chose this job because it was the same one I had during my sophomore year (2019-2020), and it is flexible: I can choose which games I want to work each week, depending on my schedule. However, the other side of the coin means that when sports aren’t in season, I don’t have a job or cash flowing in.

At the end of March, I hadn’t yet made half of my work-study award because of the number of other student workers, who gets scheduled for which games, and the number of games we host. We get assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so when I am unable to respond quickly to the weekly assignment email, I may not get any assignments for the upcoming week or two. 

My last supervisor left in February, and the new supervisor has been slow to give me remote projects or work with me to increase my schedule to the limit of 20 hours per week, so I can get closer to making what I should — despite me having asked repeatedly. I have asked for remote projects, to be scheduled for more double-header baseball games where there are two games in one day, and I even asked if I could start adding hours to reach the limit of 20 hours per week on my timesheet, even if I did not technically work – as the financial aid office previously told me.

My sophomore year, I also ended up not making my full award and had to work into the summer, and was then told to just add hours to reach my full award amount. When I emailed Columbia’s financial aid office this year, I was basically told to get a second work-study job to reach 20 hours per week.

For a five-year dual-degree, low-income student, it is not feasible for me to pick up another job without severely damaging my already-damaged mental health and burning myself out even more. So here I am, worried that when summer comes, I will lose out on the work-study award money I did not make and have to work this Athletics department job in addition to whatever internship I get, when I really need a break.

Another experience happened my freshman year in fall 2018. Entering college, I received my financial aid package and was given up to $1,500 to purchase a laptop, which would be reimbursed once I brought the receipt to the financial aid office. This was separate from outside scholarships I had already reported to Columbia. I had used my mom’s old laptop during the fall semester, but decided to buy a new laptop when visiting my boyfriend in Oregon during winter break — specifically because Oregon has no sales tax. I ended up getting a Macbook Pro for around $900 from Best Buy’s open-box section — the broke girl in me still wanted the best deal or bargain, as that is how I am used to shopping. 

I then took the receipt to the financial aid office and was told, “you were reimbursed for your laptop purchase earlier this semester due to your excess amount of scholarship funding. At this moment, your request for the [National Collegiate Athletic Association] Student Athlete Assistance Fund funding for your laptop has been denied.” I was pissed. I would not have gotten a new laptop if I was not told that it would be reimbursed. I was completely fine using my mom’s old one.

I did not fight it, as I was a first-generation, low-income student on the track team and didn’t feel like I truly belonged or had a voice to fight back and be heard. I knew from friends’ experiences that the financial aid office is extremely stubborn and refuses to budge when they make decisions. So, I let it go, deciding that I was glad I only spent $900, and not the full $1,500.

Flash forward to fall 2021: my laptop broke after falling off my bed. I have a tiny room, and my bed is elevated above my desk and dresser. The screen was more expensive to get fixed than it was to get a new laptop. I got a new one and was determined to get refunded this time. So I worked with the Assistant Director of Enrichment Services at Columbia Athletics, a Black woman and real ally, and was able to use that fund I was denied for my freshman year to get this purchase refunded as a senior. But, the freshman situation is still fucked up.

I can’t help but think of how, as a student athlete, I was able to use the Athletics department’s resources that other first-generation, low-income students don’t have access to. Especially since I didn’t have anyone else to fight for me or be an ally before the Assistant Director did, and others also don’t have that.

Casidy Cunningham (MPA ’23) is studying Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy — soon to be Urban and Social Policy — with a specialization in Technology, Media, and Communications. As a Black and low-income student navigating through these elite institutions, she hopes to pursue a career in public service focusing on urban and social policy, including criminal justice abolition, racial justice and reparations, and increasing access to economic opportunity for marginalized communities.