Dear Editor,

In your editorial “Emerson needs genuine diversity” [April 10], you seem to generalize Emerson as mostly upper-middle class. Though I agree that the financial aid offered through Emerson could be infinitely better, I do not feel that Emerson is “overwhelmingly” upper-middle class.

In my time at Emerson, I have met plenty of students who struggle, working multiple jobs and taking out astronomical loans just to keep their heads above water and keep pursuing their dream careers.

Living from one paycheck to the next may not be glamorous, but there are many students who are willing to do it in order to attend Emerson, even if the school is not very generous in helping them out or rewarding them for somehow managing to maintain high GPAs.

I feel that many of the students who think Emerson College is just a rich kid school are simply too ignorant to realize that there are students from different economic backgrounds here. You may have not met these kids because they could never afford on-campus housing. You may have never met these kids because if you did, you simply wouldn’t want to associate with them.

Or they are probably at work right now instead of writing for the Berkeley Beacon.

-Alex Miklowski

Class of 2009

Film Major