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8B Wednesday January 19, 2011 The Statement
PERSONALSTATEMENT
THE REALITY OF POVERTY
H CO KARU ER REEVEC
A.Y CAROLYN KLARECKI
grew up safe and sound in a middle
class bubble. I wouldn't say I was
privileged - my parents worked
very hard and sacrificed a lot to give
our family what we had. Still, I didn't
have a job until late in high school,
and my upbringing didn't prepare
me for the culture shock that would
ensue from the working experience.
In high school, I worked for a Mich-
igan State Housing and Development
agencythat provides rental assistance
for low-income families. Families
from all over Michigan would send
their applications to our office where
we processed them and determined
how much of the state's rental subsidy
would be sent their way. On paper, the
job looked really good. There were
no public bathrooms to be mopped
or vats of french fries to be cooked; it
was just a less than tumultuous desk
job. I filed paperwork, sorted the mail
and fixed the copy machine in a quiet,
air-conditioned building. What made
it miserable though, was the constant
ringing of phones. This is were I got a
harsh dose of the low-income reality.
I talked to homeless men and
women, who had to collect change
just to make the call on pay phones;
single moms, who were only a few
years older than me with four or five
kids; elderly men and women, who
were days away from eviction; and
crack and meth addicts. Some callers
had lost all hope and would unabash-
edly sob into the phone while I sat
frozen on the other end. Some were
angry and didn't know what else to do
but yell. I wasn't ready for any of this.
I was just a teenage girl with absolute-
ly no power, but they thought I could
change their living conditions.
Before this job, I thought I cared
a lot about the world. I volunteered
and wrote letters to local politi-
cians and newspapers. I was living
weeks of retrieving and sorting mail, I
was given more responsibilities.When
clients wanted to move, I crunched
the numbers on their income and
welfare and told them what the state
would pay for. I argued with land-
lords, looked for deductions in clients'
paperwork and worked against their
monthly rent due date. But the calls
kept coming. I couldn't stop the sob-
blindly in my own unexposed and bing desperation. I couldn't appease
sheltered middle-class world. My the furious rants.
volunteer experiences never really The work was long and monoto-
delved beyond the superficial sur- nous. Worst of all, it was completely
face of community service. I worked devastating - it wasn't worth my
at blood drives, cleaned up local minimum wage check. I dreaded
going to work each
"I was living blindly in my own day. I fantasized
about getting fired
unexposed and sheltered middle- and kept a mental
countdown of how
class world.." many weeks were
left until fall when I
parks and donated school supplies to could return to school. In the begin-
underprivileged children, but I never ning, I tried my hardest each day, but
had the chance to interact with the as the summer months passed, my
people I was trying to help. Working capacity for sympathy dwindled, and
at this rental assistance agency was I became numb to the tragic stories.
the first time I was ever immersed in I imagine that's how life is for
the cold reality of life, and the real- the people striving for rental assis-
ity was that my illusion of a perfect tance. Shock is followed by a desire
world was shattered. to work hard to overcome the situ-
The only thing I could do was work ation and eventually, when noth-
as efficiently as possible. After a few ing changes, the numbness sets in.
The low-income families go through
motions seeking a better life, but the
optimism is gone. Similarly, I con-
tinued in the same fashion as before,
but with no hope of actually making.
a difference. It was during this time
that a simple "thank you" or "God
bless you" would catch me off guard
as a powerful reminder that many
people hadn't given up yet.
As much as I hated my job, I hated
myself more for building a numb, pes-
simistic wall between myself and the
people I was trying to help. Since that
job, I have gained so much respect
for the altruistic people who join the
Peace Corps, volunteer with disaster
relief efforts and dive headfirst into
the dark gritty world that I know I
wouldn't be able to handle. After that
summer ended, I retreated back into
routine during the school year, trying
to forget my trying summer.
And yet for some reason, when
winter break neared, I picked up the
phone, called my boss and asked if she
needed any help during the holidays. I
returned to that office, sat behind the
desk, took a deep breath and answered
the phone.
- Carolyn Klarecki is an LSA
junior and the Magazine Editor
of The Michigan Daily.
RESEARCH
From Page 5B
"If we're going to remain an effec-
tive university - and of course we
will - then we really have to take
leadership in this and not just be sort
of passive learners about how more
advanced universities dothis," Forrest
said. "We have to show the way."
And while the University may be
on the forefront of rethinking the
traditional research model, Coleman,
Hanlon and Forrest all stressed that
m'iking such a move requires endorse-
ment from faculty members and that a
change would not be pushed from the
central administration.
Hanlon stressed that it's not the
administration's place to dictate
research topics.
"We obviously can't tell people they
have to go work on this problem," he
s2id.
Coleman also emphasized that she
doesn't want the administration to
centralize research by trying to man-
date what research faculty members
should do, though she added cluster-
ing research could be beneficial to all
University parties.
"We never want to be in a position
where we are dictating to the faculty,"
Coleman said, "but this is an opportu-
nity that we shouldn't ignore."
Hanlon doesn't think the University
should ignore the opportunity either. are interested in and how they are
"What we can do - what we could thinking about the needs of the gov-
hope to do - is significantly increase ernment to really do research in these
the resources to the University from areas, then we want to make sure that
external people who understand the we're tuned in," she said. "If we can
importance of solving these problems bring back those ideas to the campus,
and then saying to our faculty and stu- and if there's interest, then when can
ents, 'Look, we have funding to sup- lelp. We can be the conveningsupport
port your work on this problem, and to help people get together."
it's a really important problem and
here's why,"' Hanlon explained. THE GREAT LAKES
"And if you say that, you'll actually
get a lot ofinterest," he added. "I mean,
everyone wants to have an impact on
the world. And so I'm kind of hopeful
that if we can get the external sources Building clusters of research at the
to support the work, it's not going to University has already begun. Cur-
be that hard to get an interested group rently, there is an effort to encourage
of experts." faculty members to focus research on
But no matter how successful the sustainability. It's a broad effort on an
buy in is, Coleman doesn't think clus- even broader topic,but there are several
tering research "will happen for all concrete efforts within the cluster. One
disciplines or for all faculty members such initiative is revitalizing the Great
- that's not the goal. Lakes.
"I can see that happening in certain Researchers at the University like
select areas," Coleman said. "but it Allen Burton, director of the Coopera-
won't happen in every area." tive institute for Limnology and Eco-
However, with the anticipated systems Research and a professor in the
financial incentive of being able to School of Natural Resources and the
leverage the breadth and depth of the Environment, have already seen federal
University's faculty to attract more funding to back this effort.
research dollars to the University, it's in addition to numerous other grants
something Coleman thinks could help received by researchers at the Univer-
the University. sity, Burton was one of seven principal
"There may be some real opportu- investigators who received a $835,000
nities out there, and as we hear what federal grant that is helping research-
the various agencies in Washington ers to develop better methods of detec-
tion for bacteria and algal blooms in
the Great Lakes - both of which have
numerous harmful effects.
The research is just one of many
efforts underway to figure out how to
revitalize the Great Lakes - a problem
that requires several different research
fields to tackle effectively. The diversity
of researchers' expertise is something
Hanlon calls essential.
"In (this) example, there were
approximately 10 technical problems
that, if they could be solved, would
really have a big impact in magnifying
the effect of all the investment that's
being made by the federal government
and the state," Hanlon said of the Great
Lakes research.
"Some of these are biological prob-
lems like the biology of Ecoli, some of
them are policy problems, some are
economic problems," he continued.
"They're intertwined problems. They
aren't sort of sitting by themselves."
But for as far as the work on the Great
Lakes has come - with funding already
rolling in from the federal government
and a private donor interested in the
project - Hanlon seems to want more.
"Right now, I'm sure we have
researchers that arelooking at Ecolijust
on their own, but what we haven't tried
to do is sort of simultaneously address
these problems which are interrelated
problems and often problems that can't
be solved with a single area of exper-
tise," Hanlon said.
Coleman agrees, saying she has
confidence that the clustered research
method can be well utilized in the work
being done around sustainability and
the Great Lakes.
"I think that one of the opportuni-
ties that we have at Michigan, because
we are so big and we do research in
'so many areas, is that we have the
opportunity to tackle some really big
problems, and the Great Lakes is a big
problem," she said. "I have every confi-
dence that (our researchers) can make
great strides to solving some of the
pollution issues and the threats to the
Great Lakes."
Forrest agrees with Coleman's
assertion.
"Obviously a pressing issue in
today's world, making the footprint
left by humans less noticeable is one
issue researchers at the University -
in nearly all disciplines - are working
toward," Forrest said.
However, Forrest counters his sup-
port with a caveat that at the end of the
day, the faculty will determine what
results materialize.
"Really good scholars who are able
to communicate theirscholarship at all
levels, are really the prize of research
universities," he said. "By those people
learning and doing and teaching simul-
taneously, the students get engaged in
this and, when they leave, they have
not a static concept of the world, buta
living concept of the world."