When Dean of Student Services Michael Whaley was asked, “Are matters of class discussed at Wesleyan?” he responded that students often ignore them.

“Matters of socio-economic class impact each of us every day,” Whaley said. “As is frequently the case, those who have some privilege in this area are able to navigate without stopping to consider the impact.”

Whaley went on to say that there once existed a student group, Class Matters, which sought to address the issue of socio-economic class.

“I have not heard about very much activity from them during the current academic year,” he added. According to Kathleen Day ’07, an original member, the group is “sort of defunct” today.

Class Matters was formed in 2003 by students who felt marginalized because of their economic background. While the group was active, members organized discussions and forums about class on campus. These events provided a space to talk about an issue that Day said does not receive enough attention, both on campus and in the United States.

“Class isn’t discussed in this country, really,” she said. “Instead we tend to focus on race.”

Day continued, elaborating on why, in her opinion, students avoid discussing class issues.

“The main reason why we don’t talk about class here at Wesleyan is that the University is an institution meant to accommodate the elite,” she said. “This means that most students here are wealthy—very wealthy—and feel very uncomfortable facing the implications that come from it. Namely, that they didn’t get where they are just on ‘hard work’ and motivation.”

Jean Pockrus ’08, another of the founding members of Class Matters, offered her own perspective.

“I think class issues are most often ignored because of the nature of class,” she said. “It’s a partially hidden social characteristic of most people. You can’t see or hear it clearly. You have to get to know someone to know what their class background is.”

Like Day, Pockrus believes that the lack of dialogue about matters of class on campus is the result both of the way class is perceived in American culture and the elite character of the university.

“Although it is true that America has a relatively large middle class, the tendency for most Americans to describe themselves as ‘middle class’ obscures differences in class status,” Pockrus said. “Wesleyan is not exempt from this phenomenon. I don’t think I even have to address the ‘guilt’ of the upper class, and what seem to be conscious attempts on the part of many Wesleyan students to ‘hide’ their upper class backgrounds.”

With the student group that addressed issues of socio-economic class no longer active, individual students have taken the initiative in breaking the silence about matters of class.

Holly Wood ’08, who is researching the experience of working-class students at the University as the basis for her senior thesis, affirmed that working-class students arrive on campus with a different outlook than others.

“For the most part, working-class students are also first-generation college students and, in these families, education is often framed not as a right or inevitability, but as a necessary means to better an undesirable socio-economic situation,” Wood said.

For working-class students, concerns for economic practicality weigh heavily on decisions associated with higher learning.

Toni Martello ’08 recently completed a project for her “Culture and Denial” psychology class concentrating on the experiences of working-class students at the University. The project took the form of a 14-minute-long video consisting of six interviews Martello conducted.

“My original intent was to make it a video about all working-class students, regardless of race, gender, [or] sexual orientation,” she said.

However, Martello was surprised at her findings, particularly the fact most of the participants were female and white.

“I was initially rather confused by this, but throughout the interviews it came up a couple times that there really is no institutional support system for working-class students, especially white students,” she said.

Unlike other student demographics, white working-class students lack a forum to discuss pertinent issues.

“It seems as though other student groups can serve to soften the alienation that working-class students face,” said Martello. “These white students don’t have that support and therefore welcomed an outlet for their feelings tied to this issue.”

While the work Wood and Martello are pursuing calls attention to the needs of working-class students at Wesleyan, there seems to be some kind of a consensus that it is the University’s responsibility to address the issue.

“Wesleyan took care of me financially such that I did not need to have to strain too much to get through the four years of college,” said Dawid Wiacek ’07, one of the students Martello interviewed for her project. “But I know that my case is not true for everyone. There are people who need to work many hours a week to get by, and that interferes with academic time, putting them at a clear disadvantage.”

Pockrus suggested specific changes to the University’s policies.

“The administration should see to the creation of a listserv for students who are on large amounts of financial aid to announce deadlines for paperwork, such as the FAFSA,” Pockrus said. “The Department of Financial Aid should also set up opportunities for students to learn about their financial situation, explaining financial matters such as the terms of the loans students have taken out.”

Pockrus hoped that changes in policy could help facilitate a community for working-class students.

“The Department of Financial Aid should offer opportunities to come into the office and sit down with its staff to fill out paperwork,” Pockrus said. “These events would also allow more working-class students to meet each other and share relevant information.”

Students expressed a desire that the issue of class be given equal priority at the University level with other problems of inequality.

“I guess I’d like to see some recognition that class inequality is an issue that exists at Wesleyan and [that] it’s something that we will commit to addressing as much as we do all other forms of inequality and discrimination,” Wood said.