Socioeconomic class in the classroom and beyond
February 18On Feb. 10, Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Duncan Pickard wrote an open letter to the Tufts community, entitled "Let's talk about class," on the need for a dialogue on socioeconomic diversity at Tufts. While Pickard mentioned some of the elements of socioeconomic class that might be visible on campus, I would like to address one that goes beyond the superficial indicators of class we might be familiar with. Class goes deeper than cell phones, iPods and designer jeans. Class goes further than the decision to put Matriculation on a week day (though I fully agree with Pickard on the need to change this). Class goes beyond determining whether a student can take that unpaid internship in New York City or whether he or she has to work a minimum wage job during breaks. Class goes into the classroom itself. Our community health classes discuss health-care policy for low-income families in the United States and around the world. Our sociology classes address the consequences of urban poverty in America's cities. Our economics classes discuss the effects of the recession on manufacturing industries, and our political science classes look at different levels of income in determining issues important to constituents. I feel that Tufts does a decent job of addressing issues of class in the academic setting. In my opinion, it is not that Tufts needs to focus more on addressing issues of class from an intellectual angle. Rather, perhaps what Tufts needs is more perspective on issues of socioeconomic class. I am reminded of one specific course in which the professor proposed the question to students: "What do you think is the median household income in the United States?" One student answered with a fairly confident $100,000. $100,000 seems fairly middle class, right? Another student proposed that $100,000 was too high and guessed $80,000. How many of us are aware that the median household income, according to the US Census Bureau, was $50,233 in 2007? Half of American households, therefore, make less than the cost of tuition plus expenses for one year of Tufts. The fact of the matter is, we need more students to be aware of the realities of low-income America. If Tufts wants to continue to be one of the leading universities in the country, it needs to broaden its perspective. Fostering socioeconomic diversity at Tufts is one element of this perspective. To me, this is imperative. Tufts students are going to be the future leaders and policymakers of the country. We simply can't afford not to expand our knowledge and perspectives on these issues. The truth of the matter is that we can learn more about urban poverty by living in a low-income urban community than we can in a classroom. We can learn more about blue-collar America by working in a factory than we can by reading an article. Does this mean we all have to go out and live in an urban community or work in a factory? Of course not. However, we need to have more students with these types of experiences in our classrooms. Going need blind was a great way to start this process. Second, we need programs to address the issue of socioeconomic class at Tufts. Tufts has worked hard in recent years to encourage programming for a variety of other elements of diversity, and it is about time that socioeconomic diversity makes this list. We do have some programs that address socioeconomic class for non-students like the Jumbo Janitor Alliance and the Leonard Carmichael Soceity's project to provide English as a Second Language classes for interested OneSource staff. We need more of these. We also need to do more on-campus to encourage Tufts students with unique socioeconomic experiences to share their valuable perspectives with the rest of the Tufts community. We also need to foster an environment in which students feel comfortable discussing these issues in classrooms. Just hearing our peers' thoughts and experiences can make a huge difference in broadening our perspectives. Like Pickard mentioned, class is a difficult issue to talk about and there will certainly be challenges. I am very excited to see what The Class Project is capable of. As the future leaders and policymakers, we as Tufts students need to ask ourselves some important questions. How will we fully understand issues of urban or rural poverty without being aware of what it's like to live under these conditions? How will we make smart and balanced decisions on social programs like welfare if we've never met anyone who needs them? How will we allot funding to low-income schools if we aren't exposed to what it's like to be educated in one? If we are not exposed to the realities of socioeconomic class, how can we hold true to our "active citizen" values? I applaud the efforts of Pickard, the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, the TCU Senate and others for bringing class to the forefront of our discussions on diversity at Tufts. I hope that The Class Project will open up avenues for dialogue on this complex but very pressing issue of diversity.
