As College students, we hold a few truths to be self-evident — class will always be at 8:30 a.m., no matter what status our age may superficially afford us, campus food will never taste quite the way it smells, but it will always taste the way it looks, sleep really is the best medicine and Cop Shop is slightly sad but a whole lot of fun to read. And, of course, the No. 1 thing most College students have in common — we’re broke.
Gas prices are outlandish, Wendy’s is a Greek siren singing her songs of double bacon cheeseburgers and meal plans charge us for thousands of points we’re never going to use.
I don’t even want to think about my College loans.
But while we may become self-possessed with all of our personal debt, there are certain times this College community must come together, whether it be protesting controversial speakers, electing our first black president or supporting a country in dire need of our help.
While many Americans feel that the outpouring of support to Haiti is long overdue — and I agree — we can’t let this blind us to the fact that the Haitians need us right now, political posturing aside.
There are so many ways to donate to this cause, whether you go the simple route of texting HAITI to ‘90999,’ going to either hopeforhaiti.com or redcross.org to make a donation or finding other organizations to contribute your money, time or effort. The College’s Haitian Student Association is sponsoring a drive collecting anything you can think of that will help the Haitian people like clothes, bottled water, medical supplies, over-the-counter medication and canned food (the drop-off location is the office of Hausdoerffer Hall), too.
We can actually make a difference. There are approximately 5,600 undergraduates attending the College. If we each donate a dollar, that’s $5,600. If we each donate five dollars, that’s $28,000. And if every undergraduate donates $10?
$56,000.
And since our student to teacher ratio is 13:1, our approximately 430 faculty members can only add to that already impressive number.
We can all cough up $10 to help a country in need. We could actually make a difference.
-Caroline Russomanno
