- Why isn't there the same fear among the community about mixing up class with race in regards to "white girls." THis term was thrown around a bit indiscriminately in association with wealth.
- How should we feel living in a privileged place and having people of lower socioeconomic status working for and cleaning up after us? Should we feel guilty?
- I went to financial services to discuss ways to deal with my debt. The response I received was that my parents "should" pay more and that the school cannot accommodate "willingness" to pay. I feel like there are unfair assumptions being made here. What is your response?
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How do you define class? People with different backgrounds may have the same amount of money. Also, relationships, important ones between rich and poor.
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I find it interesting that there is this paradox that people like to show that they have money by the stuff they have but at the same time don't want to be "accused" of being rich (because maybe it will signify that they are "out of touch" with the "real world" or something…).
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I wonder why Professor Lass has the need to "read" students by their appearance to figure out their class background… How is this relevant to a professor-student relationship? Is the process of trying to gauge someone's class natural? Inevitable? Normal? Good? Bad? Necessary?
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How were the speakers chosen?
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Who brought up the topic? How did you become aware of the importance of this issue?
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If class is visible, what can we as students do about it and Mount Holyoke as a community?
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Are having differences in class bad? Even if you eradicate it, discrimination will always be there, so why even bother?
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How do we make class visible?
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Why do people feel uncomfortable when talking about class?
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As a work-study student, I, in my first year, worked as a Dining Services worker. I always felt a little on showcase as
a worker because everyone knows I was on work-study. What are other ways you think MHC shows class by work-study?
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Why didn't you interview more polo poppers?
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How do we define who is upper class, middle class, etc.?
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If class diversity is about inequality, what is "messy" about dining services work-study jobs? How can you "serve" your peers?
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Where were representations of upper class students beyond stereotyping clothing and cars?
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How does class play into the way we define/delimit our community? In what ways do we acknowledge dining/facilities staff as part of our community?
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Who are the activists and what do they fight for?
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We touched base on lower class students of color. What about lower class white students? Is it fair that they are not given as much financial help in study abroad programs/internship aid because of their color?
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How does the funding for study abroad inflate the issue of economic class on campus? Only some programs can receive Laurel fellowships (bolded vs. non-bolded).
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Why can only rich people ride horses?
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Do the daughters of faculty get preference in admission?
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What about "legacies"? What are the class implications?
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How much do you make Lee Bowie?
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How can MHC create a space where it's safe for people of all economic classes to divulge their backgrounds? I.E. How can we remove judgment without removing acknowledgement of our differences from this discourse?
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What are the differences in benefits between faculty, staff and visiting staff?
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It has been said that we have more students from the lower quartile than "peer institutions." What are the numbers? Which institutions? What does this imply?
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Lisa Heldke writes:
"The question we must ask is not: How can we avoid privilege?, but How can we work to undermine the structures that give us privilege in the first place?"
How can we apply these questions to Mount Holyoke beyond course content
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Please define "wealthy" and "poor." It is all relative. How much do numbers matter?
- What about disability? (Regarding standardized tests) A small part of the conversation, I think, is left out.
- I heard someone suggest a link between power/hierarchy and equality. My question is why not problematize freedom too, so we expand the discussion to the type of place we want to work at, let alone, the type of society we want to live in?
- What will come of this? P.S. I don't mean intangible things like "increased awareness," etc.
- A clear indicator of class is ACCESSIBILITY. How can one bridge differences when accessibility is not the same for everyone?
- Why did the film not highlight problems with financial aid finding work study jobs, and issues with housekeeper unions?
- Just because we are "better" than our peers does that make it OK?
- I know that more and more women are getting accepted to Mount Holyoke because of their wealth (abundance of finance), and I was wondering if you feel that that's fair and completely necessary. The school is poor but should money really be a prominent reason in which these women get accepted here?
- How often do students transfer out of MHC because they can't afford to go to school here?
- If 70% of students are on financial aid, where is the need to conform to privilege coming from on MHC's campus? Society? But if it is not the "real" norm here, why is there a perceived norm of rich white girls?
- I suggest a few hours a week of unpaid housekeeping for every student to relieve housekeeping duties and to make students have pride in their school. Good stress release too, and would help alleviate the gap between people with jobs and people who don't need them.
- I was surprised at the job satisfaction of the housekeeping staff. I noticed my own bias when I realized that I have always pitied them for the work they do (the dirtiness I suppose) and assumed they hated it, as perhaps I would. Then I remembered some of the staff drive sports cars. How are we defining class?
- How do you balance not being overly paternalistic (and potentially very dismissive) of a class of people or work group with a desire to be helpful and to be an advocate?
- Curious to know why Professor Ciztrim would reference only dining and facilities employees as working class, when, in fact the majority of MHC staff are working class.
- Professors say classist things all the time – they wouldn't say racist things! What is the difference?
- I'm still not sure what we mean by the term "class." Is it about economics, values, family history, education level? Is it expressed differently (or contextualized differently) on college campuses, or at a women's college?
- Do you think that students wouldn't feel the pressure to "pass" if we talked more openly about the large percentage of students from the working class or who receive financial aid?
- Why do you think that it is necessary to make class visible?
- Why is the current reputation of Mount Holyoke so homogenously upper-class related when the film expressed such a different reality?
- The most surprising thing for me when I first came to America (2003) (I'm an internation) was that when I visited homes and stayed in places considered "ghettos", they had T.Vs and nice cars etc. Poverty where I come from looks like bloated bellies, starving to death, it looks like death. Maybe the reason everyone in America doesn't want to claim anything other than middle class is because they are. Maybe America is middle class. Poor Americans are rich next to those in Darfur because they can live in a shelter get food stamps etc. Maybe our ability to be at MHC instantly makes us middle class. You hav e access to $46,000 a year regardless of the form it's coming in (loads, sacrifices, blood, sweat etc.)
