Turkey with a side of advice

If the holidays are about spending time with family, and families are about unsolicited advice, then, by transitive property, the holidays mark the time of year when we are given the gift of free advice. For seniors like myself, four years ago the pearl of wisdom was, “You know, this is the toughest year ever to be applying to colleges. You should apply to at least 15.” Two years ago we were graced with, “The economy has tanked. Are you sure you can afford living in New York City as a student?” This year I was given too many helpings of, “You know, the job market is terrible. It’s going to be tough to be a competitive candidate anywhere, and they don’t need another smart girl from Columbia.”

The heaping amount of gratuitous “advice” people seem to enjoy giving to students is overwhelming. From our perspective, seeing how long we can nod and give vague answers before the conversation moves on offers a fun twist to this repetitive interaction. (From personal experience, saying you plan either to stay in New York or move to Hawaii produces an amusing reaction.) But the anxiety persists, and the challenge is to fade out the background noise—“you’ll never get a job”—and turn up the volume on what’s constructive. Having struggled to go through these motions last weekend, I want to pass along the most positive feedback an adult—namely, my mother—offered to me: Our generation is resilient.

It’s not that the college application process, the college years themselves, and now the post-college planning frenzy have been easier than the countless articles make them sound. According to an article in Tuesday’s New York Times, college seniors graduate with an average debt hovering above $25,000. Despite the persistent jobless rate, tuition continues to rise. The City University of New York this week approved a 31 percent increase in tuition over five years, and there’s been skepticism at our own institution about how that money is used and whether Barnard’s policy to no longer allow seniors to go part-time is just. Things may look bleak. However, we have learned from the experience of going to college during tumultuous political and economic times, and so we are ready to respond.

In response to tuition increases, for example, students have incited renewed dialogue. The Occupy Student Debt Campaign, a branch of Occupy Wall Street, has coalesced to ask for zero interest on student debt, federally financed public higher education, and existing debt to be forgiven. It has also put out a “Pledge of Refusal.” Once a million people have signed the petition, they will stop making their debt payments. At CUNY Baruch this week, students took to the streets in protest of the CUNY Board’s decision to raise tuition.

On Columbia’s campus, the Student Government Association’s Town Hall Monday night drew a sizable crowd interested in learning where tuition money goes. The college also showed awareness of the need to address the burden of paying college tuition before Thanksgiving, when students, faculty, and staff were asked to sign a petition from the Student Aid Alliance calling for better funding of federal student aid programs, such as Pell Grants and student loans.

October’s jobless rate was 9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and November’s are to be released today. That’s really scary. But, perhaps unlike students who graduated a few years ahead of us, we have the know-how and the resilience to tackle that debt head-on. We also hope to confront unemployment, high taxes, and the increasing income gap. Politics aside, the number of young people, particularly students, who are involved with Occupy Wall Street is a testament to our generation’s ability to self-organize and our readiness to work hard for the changes we feel are necessary.

If there’s a silver lining to having entered college and ridden the waves of a collapsed economy, unemployment, and stalemates in Congress whenever there have been efforts to pass bills changing the system, it’s that we have also seen that there is opportunity to rebound. As hard as it may be, the next time a relative tells me, “It’s going to be tough to find a job for next year,” I will try to reply, “Yes, I know. But my friends and I are prepared for those challenges.” And, if I don’t have the confidence to say that, I’ll add that I might just take up surfing and move to Hawaii.

Jessica Hills is a Barnard College senior majoring in political science and French and Francophone Studies. She is a former associate news editor for Spectator. Urban Dictionary runs alternate Fridays.