Recently, a student from the Class of 2013 wrote a Letter to the Editor encouraging seniors to consider donating to the Senior Class Giving Campaign. In making the case for donating, the student wrote, “Even to a ‘poor’ college kid, $20.13 is really nothing.”

While many students here at Syracuse University receive monthly allowances or access to their parents’ credit cards, many of us do not. There are a number of students on this campus who hold part-time jobs to not only finance their education, but also pay rent, afford monthly utility bills and buy groceries. For some students, $20 isn’t a matter of “three lunches at Eggers Café,” it is a matter of forgoing the purchase of a particular textbook so they can buy a weeks worth of groceries at the start of a new semester. With such difficult economic times, some students have had to make the difficult choice to forgo their studies at SU altogether.

Although the student who wrote the letter had good intentions, the choice of words was reckless.  For some of us “poor” college kids, $20.13 is really something.

Amanda Claypool

International relations, political science and history major

Class of 2013