It’s easy to feel hopeless at this moment. There is great need for financial and emotional support, but our physical separation makes it difficult to provide either. Many of us are far away from campus and from those we love, or nearby, yet confined to our homes. In this difficult time, I want to share how UC Berkeley students are supporting one another — whether they know it or not.
The Student Advocate’s Office, or SAO, is a group of 55 students who provide free and confidential assistance to their peers; I joined in fall 2016 and have served in the office ever since. Since May of last year, we have supported more than 500 students with issues related to harassment and discrimination, academics, financial aid, allegations of misconduct and other grievances.
We reached record case numbers this academic year. Since March alone, we have supported more than 140 students. During this period, we received 103 applications to our funds that help students pay rent, financially support loved ones and afford high medical costs. Caseworkers in the SAO show their love for the UC Berkeley community by listening to what each student needs, providing thoughtful guidance and offering emotional support through difficult times. These 55 students and so many others are not only navigating their own uncertainty, but also supporting their peers.
The current pandemic is exacerbating student basic needs insecurity across the country. An estimated 16,800 UC Berkeley students experience food insecurity and 4,300 experience housing insecurity, according to data from the UC Office of the President and the chancellor’s Housing Task Force. The hundreds of students applying for emergency financial relief through financial aid and the Basic Needs COVID-19 Relief Fund demonstrate that, today, the need is larger than ever.
A year ago, the UC Berkeley student body came together to support its peers. The undergraduate and graduate student body passed the Student Basic Needs Fee, which generates about $1.4 million dollars in revenue each year to support students experiencing economic, food and housing insecurity. Every UC Berkeley student pays a series of fees at the beginning of each semester. To cover the cost of the fee for aid recipients, 33% of the revenue from each fee returns to the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office. This year, for the first time, one of those fees goes directly toward supporting the basic needs security of UC Berkeley students.
Each of you is contributing $15 per semester or $10 in the summer toward the basic needs security of your peers. This money has gone toward providing monthly food awards to 350 students who are not eligible for CalFresh. It has provided up to one month of rental assistance to 114 students. Your contribution has paid for the compensation of the CalFresh student staff and the food coordinator of the Basic Needs Center who have expanded programs to serve hundreds of food-insecure students.
The fee institutionalized the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, based on lessons learned from the Emergency Housing Fund that has existed in the SAO since 2017. The Fee Oversight Committee also prioritized awarding food awards to undocumented students, who are not eligible for CalFresh, and created the infrastructure for awarding funds to international students for the first time in the history of the Basic Needs Center.
As co-chair of the committee along with my mentor Ruben Canedo, we had no shortage of opportunities to learn and grow. We made a strong commitment to an equitable allocation of funds to undergraduate and graduate students according to their proportion of the student body. It was important to us to address the reality that graduate students often receive less than their fair share of the benefits of the student fees they pay into. By adjusting our approach over two semesters, we were able to come within 2% of a proportionate allocation of relief funds to undergraduates and graduates. What we’ve learned this year will shape the second year of the fee and many years to come. This year’s remaining funds will be allocated to the Basic Needs COVID-19 Relief Fund, prioritizing undocumented and international students.
In our final committee meeting of the semester, many of us shared concerns about the financial impact that this fee and others would have on students in light of the pandemic and its financial aftermath. Looking toward the future, we strongly believe that paying for basic needs services should not fall on the backs of students — many of whom are already financially constrained — but on the university and state. We are asking Chancellor Carol Christ to commit to phasing out the Student Basic Needs Fee before its sunset date and continuing to fund the essential basic needs services the fee provides.
The Student Basic Needs Fee is one of many examples of how UC Berkeley students are supporting one another during this difficult time. There is much more work to be done to realize our shared vision of holistic basic needs security for all students, faculty and staff on this campus. But I want to say thank you to my fellow students, for bringing us one step closer.
Nava Bearson was the 2019-20 ASUC student advocate and was a caseworker in the Student Advocate’s Office since fall 2016. She is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and a minor in public policy.