The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: Class at Colby

When Jessica Boyle '12J walks into a classroom, a party or the dining hall to grab breakfast, she knows that she is different. The sophomore-next year's East Quad dorm president, and member of the Student Programming Board and class council-isn't a different color from most students. She isn't from a different country and she isn't chem.-free.

She's poor.

And she's not afraid to talk about it.
According to Boyle, she's part of "an invisible minority" on campus. For many of the College's middle and upper-class majority, it's taboo to talk about money and class, so she often feels silenced when she tries to explain that's she's on a full scholarship or that she faced extreme adversity during parts of high school while juggling Advanced Placement classes, running a volunteer charity club and editing the high school yearbook.

Unlike most of her classmates, Boyle is unfamiliar with stability and privilege. Her family's constant moves forced her to bounce between three and four schools a year. When it came to applying for college, she did so alone, without help from her parents, who aren't really "in the picture" anymore.

"It felt like no one wanted to hear about it," Boyle said, reflecting on first coming to the College. "It felt like no one wanted to deal with people who are different from themselves."

Social class, apparently, isn't something students on the Hill really want to talk about. When this reporter sent out a series of general announcements soliciting chats about class, only 10 people responded. Most were female, most were seniors, many were from Maine and many said they were from lower income families.

While the limited survey cannot offer a comprehensive study of the College's social class, it does offer insight into how students are affected by their life experiences, and how one sophomore struggles to fit in among students who have never had to worry about getting groceries or "couch surf" their way through high school.

The students featured in this article didn't share their families' income status and are not meant to be pigeon-holed into any specific class category. The only thing they conspicuously have in common is a willingness to speak candidly about this forgotten topic. Perhaps that's what truly makes them different from the rest of us.

So what is social class and how does it affect college students' perceptions of their peers? Education, income, occupation and wealth are the main criteria in gauging class, according to a New York Times series of articles published together in the 2005 book Class Matters.

Continued...

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