University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Weekend, November 6-9, 2014
Homeless for now, hopeful for future because she thought he was a danger to himself and others. The stress and concern she felt toward his situation took its toll. “That semester, I responded 24/7 to my feelings and to my fear,” Carter said. “I couldn’t take my exams, I couldn’t write my papers.” Carter is more academically successful this semester but said it is not without challenges. She was recently informed that her lease was terminated and she returned to sleeping on couches. Her dual experiences as a student and a homeless individual in Madison have offered her a unique perspective on the privilege that is a college education. “When I see people down
By Hallie Mellendorf THE DAILY CARDINAL
As students exhaust themselves with late nights at the library in the midst of midterm season, one UW-Madison undergraduate combats an entirely different source of stress. Sophia Carter, whose name has been changed for this article, has been repeatedly homeless for the past four years. Carter’s father abandoned her family when she was only six years old, leaving her mother alone to raise three children in the suburbs of Milwaukee. Though Carter and her two older brothers were exceptional students throughout grade school, financial circumstances at home haunted their livelihood. For instance, Carter was
“I feel like I’ll look over my shoulder and see Everest behind me, and know I just made it.”
Sophia Carter homeless student UW-Madison
part of a free lunch program in middle school, which provided its recipients with different colored lunch tickets. This gave Carter’s peers an easy way to recognize and target her disadvantage and as a result, she says she ate many of her lunches in the bathroom. This stress was only compounded when it came time for
HALLIE MELLENDORF/THE DAILY CARDINAL
HALLIE MELLENDORF/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Sophia Carter, whose name has been changed, reflects on how homelessness and adversity steeled her resolve (right). Her current sleeping arrangement on a friend’s wood floor (left). her to go to college. “As soon as I turned 18 my mother said, ‘Now you’re God’s child, good luck,’” Carter said. Carter first became homeless in the fall of 2010 during her first semester at UW-La Crosse and became accustomed to “couch-hopping.” She was then diagnosed with bipolar disorder during her junior year. “[Homelessness] exasperated what my disorders were,” Carter said. “I got really ill. I didn’t really have a concept of reality.” The following year, Carter
transferred to UW-Madison and signed for an apartment on State Street. For the first time in three years, she had a space of her own and admits it came as a bit of a culture shock. She never unpacked her suitcase for fear that she would be forced to move again and she recalls rarely wanting to leave the apartment. “I was so in love with the idea of having space,” Carter said. But the deep retreat into her new home had consequences; Carter seldom attended classes and
was put on academic probation. Carter resolved to improve and returned for the spring semester with renewed optimism. Soon after classes began, Carter got a phone call from the police saying her eldest brother had been in a car accident. Her brother, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had developed a heavy drinking habit over the previous months and had gotten behind the wheel while intoxicated. Though he was uninjured, Carter advised the police to involuntarily commit her brother to a mental institution
“I would just like someone to think of me as an investment for the first time in my life and not a risk.”
Sophia Carter homeless student UW-Madison
the street with their Starbucks and their tablet and their Beats by Dr. Dre, and they’re stepping over other people sleeping and hanging out on the sidewalk,” Carter asked. “When do you realize that you are one and the same?” Carter said she has been
carter page 2
System overload and blame converge in financial aid crisis By Melissa Howison THE DAILY CARDINAL
Universities blame states, states blame the federal government, the federal government blames students and students blame universities. Any combination edges closer to the truth about the ever-growing calamity that is higher education’s accessibility. Experts seem unanimous on only one thing; the financial aid system intended to equalize opportunities for the millennial generation is minimally helping some, locking others into irreparable debt, and coming at the expense of basic necessities. UW-Madison junior Derek Field, the Working Class Student Union’s former finance manager, attributed much of the unintended negative con-
sequences to outdated policies and legislative stubbornness. “Policy-makers right now are not very friendly toward higher education,” Field said. He referenced the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant, originally created to close the 33 percent gap between Federal Pell grant offerings and the total cost of a college degree. However, WHEG only provided students with 7 percent of their attendance fees in 2013, according to the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. “The cost of college ballooned and financial aid did not keep up,” Field said. The results were disastrous for one Sophia Carter, a homeless UW-Madison student, whose name has been changed
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for this article. The demanding stipulations of Carter’s financial aid package and lagging federal policies compound her difficulty receiving financial aid in the face of diminishing endowments. Carter’s “independent” FAFSA status lessens her chances of receiving grants from both the federal and state governments, according to Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education. As a result, Carter lacks the funds to provide for basic housing but is still held to the same scholarly standards as her peers. “They’re asking me to succeed and do well through extremely unreasonable cir-
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cumstances,” Carter said. “And they won’t give me year-long financial aid, so I never know.” That semester-to-semester uncertainty about future funds nearly negates Carter’s ability to even plan for future housing or devise an academic plan. “Commitments are luxuries,” Carter said. “If you have the luxury to keep them, good for you, but it’s really hard when you are living on a bench.” Radomski said herein lies the crux of the progressive push for higher education reform; giving students the ability to plan. Remedy proposals include two-year aid packages. Still, Radomski suggests, because bureaucratic changes are slow and currently gridlocked, “if we want something done it should be done at the
campus level.” He said he has seen universities across the country create centralized hubs for homeless and underserved students, which offer donated food, school supplies, and financial and academic advising among other things. Not so much at UW-Madison. “To be honest with you, I don’t know if anyone’s asked,” Radomski said. Meanwhile, Field sees opportunities for the university to pressure alumni for more donations and the state for more funding. “If they’re going to freeze tuition they have to give UW-Madison more money,” he said. Carter said she just wants to feel like somebody is investing in her.
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”