Pitt Hates You!

I received a flier at the mock Board of Trustees meeting Friday on the… Pitt Hates You!

I received a flier at the mock Board of Trustees meeting Friday on the porch of the William Pitt Union that informed me of this revelation.

It wasn’t until I started reading the flier that I realized two things: First, I realized the full impact of tuition going up next year. Second, I realized Pitt might indeed hate me.

I got a whopping $3,500 in financial aid in the form of an unsubsidized loan this year. Allow me to break this down for you:

Forget housing, forget books and forget food – $3,500 doesn’t even cover one semester of tuition.

Since all I had was $3,500 to cover both semesters, each month I have to make a tuition payment of around $700, which includes an extra $40 a month for this “convenience.”

I have to pay my rent, living expenses, food and tuition on two jobs while balancing 15 credits.

Perhaps this is a good time to explain why I didn’t get much financial aid. It’s simple: My parents make too much money.

Does it matter that I live on my own? No. Does it matter that I have been working full-time since I was 15 to help support myself? No. Does it matter that my father and stepmother give me absolutely no support even though I am required to claim their income? No. Does it matter that I am 23 years old? Yep. That is the only thing that matters. Until I am 24, I must claim my parents’ income. I tried everything that I believe possible to get around this, but to no avail.

My mother – not my aforementioned stepmother – knew this. In an attempt to assist me she quit the job she liked very much to work as a nurse for UPMC. She did this only because of a tuition reimbursement benefit they offered. UPMC would pay 50 percent of the tuition of any of her children who attended Pitt.

After she worked there for a year, this benefit would kick in. I put off returning to school for a year because of that.

One morning a few weeks before classes started, my mother called me extremely upset. The human resources department of UPMC had just informed her that I was not eligible to receive tuition reimbursement. Since I did not live with her and she did not claim me on her income taxes, I was not eligible.

Pitt claims that I am a dependent of my parents and I am denied financial aid because of their income – I can’t even get the student loan interest paid for me.

UPMC claims I am not dependent on my mother and I am denied financial aid. Two institutions, University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which seem to be connected by their names alone, have two very different views of what a dependent is. Because of these conflicting views I put off school for a year for benefits I would never receive.

I can barely make it each month. Many times I don’t eat because I just don’t have the cash to buy any food. Believe it or not, writing a weekly column doesn’t rake in the dough. Now I am truly worried what I will do next year when I have to pay what looks to be at least a 10-percent tuition increase.

This is when I started to believe that Pitt does hate me. The Board of Trustees just approved a $188 million new Biomedical Science Tower. Despite the reduction in funding from the state, they feel they need to continue to push Pitt in being competitive.

I think that is a fine plan when you aren’t skipping meals to pay your tuition. I would be the first person to tell myself that if I can’t afford to go here perhaps I should go somewhere else. CCAC is just a bus ride away and anyone would be just in telling me this if I was attending CMU or perhaps Duquesne. I am not, though. I am attending a state-funded – decreasing as that “funding” may be – public university.

I am active on campus. I get good grades. I work hard. There is no reason that I shouldn’t be here, and yet it seems that I am not wanted.

It appears that the goal to draw more sought-after students does not include me but upper middle class students whose families can afford it. I suppose I should be grateful that I am here now, right? At least when Pitt transforms itself into an Ivy League public university, I will look more desirable to employers when I tell them that I – barely – graduated from Pitt. Hopefully, I will be successful enough that I will be able to pay Pitt’s tuition when my kids go to college.

Todd Brandon Morris is gratefully accepting donations for his spring tuition. If you would like to send him a check please contact him at [email protected].