Around New England

Yale Students Stage Sit-In Over Crushing 10-Hour Work Week for Financial Aid

April 18, 2018

A foreign student from Pakistan said he has to work 10 hours a week and sometimes more in one of Yale University’s libraries just to make the payments that Yale requires of all students receiving financial aid.

That has meant missing out on social activities and other amenities at the country’s third-oldest institution of higher learning.

“I was promised my family’s financial situation would not prevent me from accessing all the amazing things that Yale offers, but when I got here I realized that wasn’t the case,” Shaheer Malik told the New Haven Register. “… For me it has meant working 10, maybe more, hours shelving books at the library when I should be writing a piece or studying for an exam, shelving the books my peers will use to study and enjoy the Yale experience while I scan bar-codes.”

Twenty Yale students were arrested Monday during a rally against the so-called Student Effort requirement, under which students receiving financial aid must contribute $2,800 to $3,350 in student employment for upper-level students, plus a summer-income contribution. The arrested students refused to leave the college’s financial aid office.


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