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Howard University Protest: Students on Housing, Financial Aid
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by Scott Wu | September 4, 2009 at 03:04 pm
721 views | 5 Recommendations | 3 comments
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Students and union workers crowded outside of Howard University administration building this morning protesting problems with on-campus housing, delayed financial aid, and labor practices. About 350 gathered today, wearing black T-shirts waving signs of "we want answers" and "no more silence".
Students complain about long lines at the financial aid office. After nearly 2 weeks since school started, loan and aid payments were still absent. Students voiced their financial difficulties:
"I live off-campus. On September 1st I was supposed to pay my rent," said sophomore Jecika Merzius 19. She said that she turned in her forms in June but was only approved Thursday. "Everyone is having the same problem."
Another student said she had had similar problems last year.
"I wasn't even sure I could afford to come here until the first day of school," said Tahir Alberga, 19, a sophomore.
What was interesting was that the organizers of the protest asked students not to speak to media unless the public relations director was present.
Though the students were advocating press freedom in part, organizers asked participants not to speak to media unless the student organization's public relations director was present. Students who did speak to one reporter were repeatedly hassled by others present.
Some, however, were not convinced that the protest would be effective.
"I don't think this is the right way," said junior Dexter Williams, 21. "There have been many protests on campus before, and nothing's changed."
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 17:33 on September 4th, 2009
Howard University students and Union Staff Protested over issues withfinancial aid, student housing and labor practices because Howard University has many issues. Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Several Grievances have been filed by SEIU Local 32BJ against Howard University for violating workers rights under their Union contract. This is unacceptable at this institution. Hard working men and women who keep Howard University clean are being replaced by a company “Unicco" that is full of low paying employees. The new Unicco supervisors are mistreating the current Howard University Employees because the Union legislative bodies are not moving fast enough. Next, the students have the right to be protesting about getting their problem resolved! These students have never received free stuff like many of the other sites are trying to make it look like. Remember that their parent’s pay taxes. Nothing is free, if you buy a piece of paper in this country, you pay taxes. Ignorance can be ignore, go HU, do not give up at all.
at 10:42 on September 13th, 2009
My daughter in California is likewise still waiting for her student aid check. : (
She is living day to day with the help we can give her, but I am running out of encouraging speeches of "this is temporary," "it might seem awful now, but you are doing the right thing," "don't worry about getting a job when you are finished." That last one sticks in my throat because she is going to be a teacher, and I hope the jobs will be there. : (
at 21:46 on October 8th, 2009
In todays world of economic crisis, financial aids became more important and maybe life saving.So these financial aids most be payed on time.