Weekly Spotlight | Class Issues Alliance hosts regional conference

Sarah Goetz Staff Writer

Mike Ilardi Staff Writer

While discussions and organizations regarding race, sexuality and gender are often at the forefront at Vassar, economic class diversity has remained largely sidelined. Recognizing this lapse, the recently formed Class Issues Alliance (CIA) will host the First Annual Northeast Class Issues Conference on March 28-30 to promote awareness of class difference both on and off campus and to bring class activists together for a day of discussions, workshops and lectures.

“The goal of this first conference is just to get class issues out on the table,” said CIA President Kathleen Brady-Stepien ’08 in an e-mailed statement. “We need to talk about class not only inside the classroom, but we also need to feel comfortable discussing it amongst ourselves as students and with professors and administrators. We want this campus and other campuses to be safe spaces for lower-income students, and that means that those lower-income students should not feel uncomfortable saying, ‘I can’t afford (fill in the blank)’,” she added.

As one of the first conferences of its kind, the CIA is making great strides in networking with similar organizations across the Northeast. One such organization is the Smith Association of Class Activists (SACA), based at Smith College. “SACA has never held or participated in a similar conference and we don’t know of any other similar groups, either,” explained Chair of SACA Kendra Colburn ’09 in an e-mailed statement. “The upcoming Northeast Class Issues Conference is truly a groundbreaking event...we’re honored to be included. The Vassar Class Issues Alliance seems to be a cohesive, extremely effective student organization addressing a broad range of issues.”

What’s planned

Members of the CIA discussed various ideas for an overall theme for the conference but eventually decided to host it without a particular focus. Brady-Stepien acknowledged that “in subsequent conferences, students will be able to specifically shape the issues.” The conference will touch upon issues such as the treatment of campus employees, admission practices and the personal changes that result when a person of the working class “crosses over” into an elite institution.

While the CIA will be asking for any donations that conference attendees can give, suggesting $10, participation will not require payment from intrigued conference participants.

Vassar professors have also become involved in the conference and will participate in panel discussions, one of the CIA’s primary tools for bringing these issues to the surface. Last semester’s discussion, entitled “Confronting Class Boundaries: A Discussion with Professors of a Working-Class Background” had “four professors of working-class backgrounds…[speak] about what it was like to first come to college and then return to teach,” said Brady-Stepien. The panel discussion drew upward of 75 people.

In addition to lectures and workshops, there will be a similar Professor Panel Discussion at the conference featuring Assistant Professor of Geography Joseph Nevins, Professor of Cognitive Science Carol Christensen, Associate Dean of the College Ed Pittman ’82, as well as Associate Professor of Geography and Anthropology Lydia Savage of University of Southern Maine. The professors will speak about their own experiences with class issues within higher education. The panel will be moderated by Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies Kiese Laymon.

The CIA invites anyone and everyone to participate and hopes that class issues will be more openly discussed in the Vassar community in the future.

Who’s coming

Vassar will host representatives from colleges throughout the Northeast, including Capital Community College, Columbia University, Smith College, University of Southern Maine, Bennington College, State University of New York in New Paltz, York County Community College, Swarthmore College, Drew University, Yale University and Dutchess Community College. About 30 students are officially registered for the conference, but more are expected to attend.

The Smith College SACA will be one of many individual organizations represented at the conference. The organization “advocates for low-income students…through emotional and material support, and by pressuring the administration to adopt policies to aid these students.” Like the CIA, SACA both supports students dealing with class issues and investigates them.

SACA will screen a film entitled Class is Never Dismissed during the conference. Colburn said that the “documentary profiles low-income students at Smith.” It explores the issues from a social standpoint, highlighting “the emotional and cultural experiences of going to an elite institution.”

“By teaming up with students all over the Northeast, we can get ideas for issue-based campaigns and learn from our collective experience what tactics and strategies have or haven’t been effective,” explained Brady-Stepien. “We also plan to demonstrate through the structure of many of the workshops the workings of truly egalitarian discussion and organization, and how groups can function effectively without traditional leadership roles or executive boards,” she added.

For three days, students from the participating institutions will brainstorm, discuss and work to solve issues of class concerning both students and college workers.

Thomas Facchine ’11, who took an interest in the work of the CIA from his first days on campus, explained his personal connection to the conference. “I come from a working-class background…and during freshman orientation, one thing I noticed was that, though Vassar does a very good job of making its students aware of a lot of different kinds of diversity, the one area where I thought it was lacking was in class issues and class difference.”

“Unfortunately, class consciousness is remarkably low in the United States, and oftentimes class is discussed in the framework of ideologies and not issues,” added Facchine in an e-mailed statement. “I think absence of dialogue, our frequent personal experiences with classism in academia and our collective ambition inspired this conference.”

What is the CIA?

The CIA was formed in Spring 2007 and received official Vassar Student Association (VSA) recognition last fall. Although the group is relatively small, with just 12 consistent members, its mission and the events it has hosted have generated widespread interest from students and administrators alike.

“Because a lot of our parents didn’t go to college, we are often unaware of the resources available to us,” said Brady-Stepien.

To help resolve this problem, the CIA invited representatives from the Office of Career Development to speak about the resources and opportunities that are available to all students.

“It’s really important that people realize it is not just a support group,” said Brady-Stepien. “We would like to have anyone who is interested in our issues.”

Financial aid reform is one of the group’s most pressing issues. Facchine explained that there are two kinds of aid: institutional financial aid, which is determined by federally calculated formulas, and discretionary funding, which exists in different departments to provide for expenses such as music lessons, VSA activities or required travel for a class.

The CIA is primarily concerned with discretionary funding. “We found that it’s very decentralized, it’s very scattered, and no one knows about it,” Facchine noted.

The group is trying to make discretionary funding more available by centralizing information and distribution, as well as determining the ways in which the funding is lacking.

“Right now, we’re forming specific, concrete proposals as to what should get more funding,” Facchine said. He and the rest of the CIA are looking at case studies of students who, according to Facchine, “are prevented from the full Vassar experience,” because of their financial means and lack of discretionary funding.

In addition to reforming the way that discretionary funds are distributed, the CIA would like to approach federal funding to determine how accurately the needs of students are met.

Beyond financial aid reform, the CIA is closely following negotiation proceedings between the College and the members of the Service Employees International Union, whose contract expires in June.

Facchine noted that, regarding some class issues, “it’s been a very good year for us,” referring to the recently announced Poughkeepsie High School scholarship, as well as the return to need-blind admission. “Those were two huge obstacles,” he said.

He also added that, while his organization supports those decisions, they also seek to ensure that “the administration sticks to the ideals that are professed in those actions.”

The CIA has a sustained relationship with members of the administration. Facchine has been a delegate to meetings of the Committee of Inclusion and Excellence, an organization developed by President Catherine Bond Hill that shares many goals with the CIA.

“We have had—for being such a new group—a good amount of support and dialogue with the administration,” Facchine said.

In addition to forming positive relations with the administration, the CIA’s current challenge is to create ties with other institutions around the region. “It’s really important to form an intercollegiate network,” said Brady-Stepien.