Rice Students Get a Taste of Poverty
Some students at Rice University increased their awareness of poverty by experiencing it for a few days, the Rice Thresher reports.
About 75 students lived outdoors in makeshift shanties set up on the university's quad for four days and got a budget of $2 a day, the same amount of money that 2 billion people across the world live on. Students constructed the shanties from two-by-fours, plywood, and cardboard boxes donated from local hardware and lumber stores, and they ate three square meals of rice and beans prepared, served, and cleaned up by their fellow shantytown members. Check out these photos of the poverty awareness event.
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Reader Comments
hold on...
I think many people here are commenting without understanding the context—granted, this article does not do justice to what actually occurred at Rice.
Many of the students who undertook this project are members of Engineers Without Borders, a group that travels to areas such as El Salvador and Peru to help with water filtration, drainage techniques, etc. Others are members of Rice HuMED, another group which travels to highly impoverished areas to provide healthcare. So, the insinuation that these students do not actually know what poverty is like, is completely incorrect.
The mission of the project was not to claim that the students were actually living in poverty. The mission was to raise awareness of what true poverty actually is. Believe me, standing in that shantytown after the pouring rain…the mud, wet possessions, and mosquitoes…many Rice students who weren’t participating in the project stopped by to ask the participants what the project was about, how they could help, what the purpose was, etc. Having a shantytown in the middle of campus was a visual reminder of the fact that poverty does exist, and it’s not at all pretty—a way of reminding ourselves that though we live on a beautiful campus and are awarded many opportunities, there are so many out there who simply do not have access to such resources.
For all you who are critiquing this—you are ruining the spirit of the effort, which was to raise awareness and good will. Please control yourselves, stop criticizing, and go out and make your world a better place.
Such a lack of understanding of the human condition
I'm with Donna. This "experiment" is so off the mark. Rice parents should be feeling pretty duped for the high tuition dollars paid for such questionable educational experience. The very fact that students carried out this charade without questioning it's validity says so much of the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. If Rice enrolled more students from disadvantage backgrounds, they would have laughed so hard this "poverty experience" would never been carried out. The slideshow was incredulous because it is simply so removed from what real poverty is like.
Rice, please learn from the long tradition at Columbia University in NYC and get out in your local communities and do some good while you are trying to educate yourself. Don't build a bubble on your quad...those unfortunates around your campus are in truth your equals, just not so blessed. Don't fear them, get to know them if you really want to understand what it is like to be poor.
Awareness
The students were raising awareness on a issue that occurs around the world. They were not trying to end poverty. I think it was great what they did. A lot of people are criticizing, but these students have probably done more than you have. Many of the students participating in this event have been to other parts of the world and helped out. They've done alternative spring break, going to parts around the country, Mexico, Costa Rica, and helped out there. Some have been part of Engineers Without Borders (http://www.ewb.rice.edu/) and has "four international engineering projects in three countries, and a budget of approximately $40,000". That's only a glimpse of what Rice does. So unless you are out there saving the world, you shouldn't be putting these students down.
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