THE PROJECT
MSU ABANDONED OVER
700 EMPLOYEES
THE PROBLEM
On September 21st, 2020,
Michigan State University (Residential and Hospitality Services) made the decision to put the university’s finances
before the wellbeing of their students. After furloughing more than 700 student employees, the university abandoned their workers and told them to seek employment elsewhere during an already rocky COVID-19 economy.
We understand that international student workers have been disproportionately affected by this decision. Due to U.S. immigration laws regarding their student-visa status, they can only apply for jobs that are on-campus. This decision effectively eliminated their source of income of international student workers who had an off-campus apartment and relied on this employment to pay for rent, utilities, and food expenses. For many students, this was their only viable source of income and it was stripped from them. International student workers have been disproportionately harmed by this, having to jump through months-long bureaucratic loops just to secure PERMISSION to work off campus.
**After 1 week of requests for aid, $430 have been provided to furloughed international student workers**
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As a response to the Michigan State University decision to furlough its student workers at RHS, Spartan Solidarity Network and dreaMSU are working together to establish a mutual aid fund.
This is completely run by students who are looking to help their fellow students struggling during this time. As mentioned above some of these students no longer have a steady source of income and are without any way of accessing resources at this time.
For that reason, we hope you can help these students. Spartan Solidarity Network and dreaMSU are working diligently to ensure all we can do to help these students, and any contribution from you would help immensely in our effort.