Emergency Fund
By Gisselle Yepes
What is the Wesleyan Emergency Fund?
The Wesleyan Emergency fund is:
selective, reductive, controversial, bias, and not definite. If you have not yet heard of it, that is okay. You will not hear of the fund until you find yourself sitting in a room, listening to the administration spiel, obviously focusing on first-generation low-income (FGLI) students, about how they got you. The spiel will move vaguely providing FGLI students with slight bits of hope, promising a pool of money that exists when an emergency spontaneously appears. Except, there is no definition for what exactly is the emergency fund; there are no concrete answers for: who it funds, how much money exists for each student, within what boundaries can a student receive funding, etc. Therefore, there is no promise, just a floating fund of money that exists in a marionette (the administration’s) hands, while they move the strings for the students of their choosing with the problems that they’d like to solve. There is also no public record of who has received the Emergency Fund allowing funding to literally exist without definition. Google it, I know you want to. I sure wanted a definition to write this article, but it. does. not. exist. Most university money is lowkey. Like… really lowkey.
So, after the spiel, you will brain blog it and faintly hold the information you’ve received (I think) until you walk into a wall that reads “emergency.” Fall semester sophomore year, my laptop crashed. That was my emergency. I contacted the Office of Student Affairs, which the Emergency Fund is under, and they suggested I take out a loan since the emergency fund could not pay for the complete cost of a laptop. Taking out a loan was a decision I could not make as a FGLI student and was not a decision I had to make to pay off my tuition. Was I taking out a loan? No. I cried, contacted a thousand deans, cried, then made a GoFundMe. Luckily, I earned the money. (funny story, a day after I received my laptop… I got a virus [then found out I got scammed but anyways] and need $300 extra dollars and the emergency fund could cover that???!!!???) Therefore, the emergency fund, according to the Office of Student Affairs could cover laptop repairs but not laptops. There are students at Wesleyan who have received funding for laptops. There are also students who did not receive funding for repairs.
Sherly Francois, a sophomore, also worked tremendously hard to allocate funds for a health insured bill forced onto her after being told that she could not apply to Husky Healthcare using her Wesleyan address. First, this is false. I, alongside many other Wesleyan students, use my Wesleyan address for health insurance allowing me to waive the $1k Wesleyan health insurance as well as receive care at the doctors near Wesleyan. Don’t let them scam you. Apply for Husky. Second, I simplified her story, so here is more of it: With the Wesleyan health insurance, Sherly had to pay a $40 copay for every doctor’s visit. She accumulated a bill of $2045. The Office of Student Affairs asked her to take out a loan when she, too, did not do so to pay for tuition. Like me, Sherly could not take out the loan so she continued pushing the administration for assistance. She contacted president Michael Roth, and he supported her with the Emergency Fund proving that the funding is not definite, does not exist with a public record, and its boundaries are too flexible. They literally help when they need to save their own asses after noticing that a student will not budge and will not stop fighting until they receive support. Also, how can a pool of money be too small for a $1k laptop and not a $2k health bill? (I understand that these are two distinctly different things; however, the lack of support of one compared to the other was based on money) But, I digress.
Like Sherly Francois said, “I don’t know what counts or what doesn’t, but I do know it’s f*cked up.” Issa set up. We need a public record or, at least, a definitive statement of what is the emergency fund and what is covers and for whom. Fight for it, though. Fight for your money if you need funding and honestly cannot do it. E-mail president Michael Roth, if need be. If worse comes to worse, make a GoFundMe or a Youcaring because I’m sure people love you and want you here. Remember, your address here is one you can use to save yourself $1k and receive Husky Health. Save yoself sis!
Con mucho amor,
Gisselle Yepes