G

rowing up, June was 
always 
a 
month 
of 
unbearable 
anticipation. 
As the weather got warmer 
and the final days of school 
dragged on, talk of summer plans 
bounced around the classroom at 
remarkable speed. Many would 
spend the time off on family 
vacations. Others would be at 
home, spending time with friends 
and relatives. For me, however, the 
imminent arrival of summer could 
only mean one thing: it was time to 
go to camp. 
From the ages of 7-17, I was lucky 
enough to spend my summers at 
Camp Ramah in Canada, a Jewish 
sleepaway camp tucked away in 
the Muskoka region of Ontario. My 
days were spent running free with 
friends, swimming in the lake and 
making life-long memories. The 
daily activities, however, were 
only the tip of the iceberg of what 
camp had to offer.
Jewish summer camps have 
been around for over 100 years. 
In the early 20th century, these 
camps offered freedom for Jews 
to 
observe 
Jewish 
traditions 
at a time when many were 
facing pressure to assimilate. 
Since then, Jewish camps have 
multiplied across North America, 
with the Foundation for Jewish 
Camp (FJC) reporting over 150 
different overnight camps in 
their 2021 Jewish Camp Census. 
These camps offer an enriching 
experience for Jewish children 
and young adults, immersing them 
in Jewish cultural and religious 
practices, while still offering 
them the authentic, fun camp 
experience.
Jewish camps vary widely in 
religiosity, serving all different 
sects of Judaism. For some, prayer 
is a part of the daily schedule, 
with services in the morning 
and evening. Hebrew may also 
be 
integrated 
into 
campers’ 
daily lives, with buildings and 
activities having Hebrew names, 
and staff and campers conversing 
in Hebrew whenever possible. 
Shabbat — the Jewish day of rest 
— is also a central part of Jewish 
life at many camps, with normal 
activities coming to a halt each 
Friday as the camp gathers to 
celebrate the end of the week with 
songs and prayer.
For some, myself included, 
camp is a glimpse of Jewish 
culture they may not get to 
experience otherwise. Growing up 
in a household where synagogue 
was a once a year event, Friday 
nights were nothing out of the 
ordinary, and no one spoke a word 
of Hebrew, summer camp was like 
superglue — binding me to a strong 
Jewish identity I would carry with 
me into adulthood. At camp, I was 
proud to be a Jew.
LSA 
sophomore 
David 
Lightman reflects on his camp 
experience 
with 
a 
similar 

perspective. From the ages of 
8-15, he attended Camp Barney-
Medintz, located in Cleveland, 
Ga., and was able to gain an 
incredible sense of Jewish pride 
and community during his time 
as a camper. “Camp made being 
Jewish fun,” he said. “It made me 
want to carry it with me into the 
future.”
The value of the experience is 
undeniable, yet the picture is far 

from perfect. For many Jews — 
low-income Jews in particular — 
Jewish summer camp is nothing 
but a pipe dream. Parents are 
expected to cough up a hefty 
amount for their child’s camp 
tuition, far more than many are 
able to afford. At a camp considered 
to be on the “inexpensive” end, 
a parent may be shelling out as 
much as $200 a day for their child, 
a number already far too high for 
many working class families. This 
is nothing, however, compared 
to the financial demand of other 
much 
pricier 
camps, 
where 
parents may find themselves 
dropping as much as $2000 a week 
on their child.
The rising prices are no surprise. 
Sleepaway camps are no longer 
just a few cabins by the lake, but 
instead high-end facilities decked 
out with the best, most expensive 
equipment — rock climbing walls, 
pools, water trampolines — all 
with a hefty price tag of their 
own. Not only that, but camp 
professionals are paid extremely 
well, with directors at non-profit 
camps having an average salary of 
$125,000 per year. For-profit camp 
directors can make even more. The 
financial burden is therefore left 
on the families who elect to send 
their children to these camps, but 
where does this leave low-income 
Jewish families? 
For many — especially those 
covering the cost of a Jewish 
education 
during 
the 
school 
year — covering these exorbitant 
costs is simply unattainable. No 
amount of budgeting or saving 
can make something so expensive 
affordable. This leaves a large 
percentage of Jewish children 
unable to experience everything 
Jewish camp has to offer.
Many camps are aware of the 
inequity, and offer scholarships 
and grants to families in need. 
First-time 
camper 
incentive 
grants are available through One 

Happy Camper, a program funded 
by the Jewish Foundation for 
Camp, who also offer numerous 
other scholarships. Wildflower for 
Kids — an organization dedicated 
to helping children move through 
grief and loss — also uplifts 
the camp experience, offering 
scholarships to kids who have 
lost family members. However, 
these scholarships are often not 
near enough. Most consist of 

“discounts” off tuition that barely 
make a dent in the thousands 
upon thousands of dollars camp 
demands.
So the question remains — 
how can we make camp more 
affordable? Aside from investing 
in more generous scholarship 
opportunities, keeping the Jewish 
community informed on different 
available scholarships is incredibly 
important. The same way that 
college scholarship programs do 
outreach to inform prospective 
students 
of 
their 
scholarship 
opportunities, foundations like 
FJC should be reaching out in 
different communities in order 
to target individuals who would 
benefit most greatly from their 
scholarships, and who may not 
even be aware of the benefits of 
camp for their children.
In addition to getting the word 
out, 
the 
scholarships 
offered 
should be accessible to everyone. 
Many of the scholarships available 
now 
have 
time-consuming 
applications 
that 
often 
leave 
families feeling confused and 
hopeless. 
Simple 
scholarship 
applications that require only 
basic 
personal 
and 
financial 
information are most effective in 
matching families with the aid 
they need. FJC recently launched 
BunkConnect, a program that 
allows families to input only a 
small amount of information and 
be rewarded with a number of 
different Jewish camps that match 
their requests. More programs like 
this would lead to more families 
discovering 
aid 
opportunities 
they may not have even realized 
existed.
Some would argue that Jewish 
overnight camp is a luxury, and 
that if you can’t afford it, there 
are numerous other ways to instill 
your child with a strong Jewish 
identity.

T

he 
search 
for 
a 
new 
University president has 
come to an end. Following 
the unpopular tenure of former-
President 
Mark 
Schlissel 
and 
his termination by the Board of 
Regents, 
students 
and 
faculty 
alike questioned who would be 
next to take the job. This summer, 
after months of searching, the 
University hired Dr. Santa Ono, 
sitting president of University 
of British Columbia (UBC) and 
former president of University 
of Cincinnati (UC). Ono has not 
only been appointed to lead the 
University of Michigan onward, but 
has been chosen to revitalize and 
fortify the relationship between 
the University president and the 
student body. With the loss of trust 
that accompanied the previous 
administration, the reconstruction 
of this connection is essential 
in order to make institutional 
progress.
To know the student population, 
you must interact with them. At 
Ono’s previous institutions, he 
found multiple ways to connect with 
students and make his presence 
known. Whether it be crowd-
surfing at homecoming football 
games or effectively using social 
media platforms, Ono has taken 
initiative to meet with students 
rather than forcing them to come 
to 
him. 
This 
people-oriented, 
personable 
presence 
makes 
a 
difference: it allows for comfortable 
connections to be made between the 
president and students. We expect 
Ono to uphold this commitment to 
connecting with students just as 
closely in his new position. 
While 
participating 
in 
the 
fight songs in the Big House every 
Saturday and posting the occasional 
tweet does make a difference in the 
public perception of the Office of 
the President, structural change 
cannot come without trust. In 
the past, there has been a severe 
lack of faith in our leadership, but 
Ono can assuage this distrust by 
prioritizing the needs of students 
rather than those of his office. 
We expect for Ono to not only 
communicate with students but 
more broadly to reembody the aura 
of a trustworthy and thoughtful 
campus administrator. Renewing 
this belief in University officials 

is the backbone by which change 
can happen, as trust permits open 
dialogues and a confidence in 
the authority figures that dictate 
so many important matters on 
campus. 
Santa 
Ono’s 
agreeableness 
distinguishes him from our last 
dormant 
and 
somewhat 
stiff 
president. A popular figure around 
his 
previous 
campuses, 
Ono 
has proved that he is capable of 
naturally engaging with the student 
body and the University as a whole. 
For instance, Ono has actively 
endorsed the University’s athletic 
department, and, during his time 
at the UC, he got into uniform and 
started practicing with the football 
team. He was also spotted at several 
Cincinnati games cheering for the 
team. 
On top of this school spirit, Ono is 
a talented cellist, having studied at 
the Peabody Conservatory of Music 
in Maryland. At UBC, he was quite 
involved in the music department, 
and not just administratively. For 
example, he performed at a pop-up 
concert with several music students 
at a train station, which was a 
pleasant surprise for individuals 
boarding.
Ono is a well rounded individual 
to say the least, but what has he done 
in regards to the pressing issues 
many North American universities 
face? Well, for starters, he’s an active 
leader in the University Climate 
Change Coalition, an organization 
that’s dedicated to reducing carbon 
emissions and relying more on 
renewable 
sources 
of 
energy. 
Ono’s work at UBC showcases his 
passion for this, having worked to 
implement several decarbonization 
programs, such as the Bioenergy 
Research Demonstration Facility.
Additionally, since 2007, UBC 
has reduced its GHG emissions by 
a resounding 30%. On historically 
unaddressed issues, such as mental 
health, Ono has voiced his concerns 
and taken important action at the 
UC. Following a suicide in 2016, 
Ono took immediate action by 
providing all UC students with free 
counseling sessions and promoting 
several fundraisers, such as the 1N5 
— which seeks to fight the stigma 
associated with mental illness and 
provide resources 
for 
those 
in 
need of therapy. In a moment of 
vulnerability, he even spoke out 
about his struggle with mental 
health in an Enquirer interview, 
stating that he personally suffered 

with 
depression 
and 
suicidal 
ideation in his youth and that he 
was able to get the help he needed to 
move forward.
Further, 
Ono 
has 
spoken 
prolifically about his commitment 
to tackle sexual assault culture at 
UBC, going so far as to say that 
he had “the final word in terms 
of discipline in these kinds of 
cases.” He even promised to bring 
in and work with experts on how 
to address rape culture at UBC. 
Thus, considering his charisma and 
professional dexterity in handling a 
variety of pertinent and pervasive 
issues on college campuses, it seems 
that the Board of Regents was right 
in unanimously approving his 
appointment as the next University 
president.
Unfortunately, 
a 
modest 
probing of Ono’s resumé does 
point 
to 
potentially 
troubling 
realities. During a period of his 
tenure at UBC, for instance, an 
ongoing investigation carried out 
by the United States Department 
of 
Education 
assessed 
several 
complaints 
pointed 
at 
Ono’s 
administration 
in 
regards 
to 
discriminatory 
practices 
that 
failed to properly respond to sexual 
violence incidents that it had 
awareness of. He was ultimately 
cleared of involvement in any 
discriminatory practices in the 
investigation.
This potential dismissal of sexual 
violence extends past Ono’s time at 
UBC. With nearly 100 reports of 
sexual assault on the UC campus 
in 2015, this ultimately subjected 
students to a “sexually hostile 
environment,” a quote taken from 
a letter that the Department of 
Education sent to Ono. Given the 
University of Michigan’s historical 
failure to cohesively address sexual 
assault allegations,we are hopeful 
that the new president may offer 
more than just lip service when it 
comes to sexual assault culture. 
In essence, when it comes to 
school pride and mild domestic 
liberalism, Ono seems to check off 
some boxes, but only if we blur over 
fundamental parts of his history. 
Compared to our last president, Ono 
definitely seems to have more of a 
face to him. However, when it comes 
to sexual assault culture, students 
cannot be wholly optimistic about 
the appointment of Ono.

Opinion

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From The Daily: President Ono’s 
appointment is an opportunity for 
positive change

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 — 9
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Solving the rising cost of Jewish camp

THE MICHIGAN DAILY 
EDITORIAL BOARD

A

s someone who teaches 
classes 
for 
incoming 
students, the fall is an 
exciting time. I get to watch all 
these beautiful humans explode 
into new things. There’s so much 
potential. As a first-generation 
student myself, I often find myself 
having conversations with other 
first-generation college students. 
Sometimes these are amazing, as I 
get to watch new students gape at 
all the possibilities in front of them. 
But often there is a hefty batch of 
nervousness, particularly around 
the amount of debt required to 
come to the University of Michigan. 
These students can expect to finish 
undergrad with tens of thousands 
of dollars in debt with sometimes 
quickly-compounding interest on 
top of that. Nationally, the burden 
of student debt is worse for first-
generation students or those from 
lower/working-class 
or 
racially 
minoritized families. 
So, I’m always worried about 
my students. But this year has been 
especially troubling for me, largely 

due to something we’re not hearing 
enough about: the relationship 
between measures used to target 
inflation and increasing student 
debt.
There’s no reason to go very 
deep into rampant inflation and 
the Federal Reserve’s interest rate 
hikes in response. That discussion is 
happening literally everywhere else.
What we do need to talk more 
about is the fact that these solutions 
have saddled college students with a 
disproportionate share of the harm 
caused by inflation. That’s because, 
when the Fed raises interest rates to 
slow inflation, the yield on 10-year 
Treasury bonds goes up. Basically, 
these rates are what the government 
pays out to people who invest in it — 
the returns on American debt. For 
college students, this is important 
because, since 2013, student loan 
rates have been tied to treasury 
bond rates. The cost of student loans 
is linked to the cost of federal debt. 
But there’s one important thing to 
notice: student loans tack on another 
2.05% on top of the treasury bond 
rate. That’s right. Here in America, 
we charge our kids more to borrow 
money for schools than the lender 
pays out when it borrows money. We 

expect to make some side cash from 
students going to school. 
This disgusting price gouging is 
another example of the ways current 
financial policies push off the cost of 
unsustainable capitalist growth on 
future generations. Young people 
did not cause the current rates of 
inflation, but they will be harder 
hit in the short term by a recession 
in response to interest hikes. In the 
long run, they will also be worse off 
if they have to take on costlier loans 
on their own futures to stabilize the 
economy. Perhaps the most obscene 
thing is, when inflation eventually 
does go down, rates on treasury 
bonds will too. But student rates 
are locked in. Today’s students will 
pay high rates on the loans they 
take out this year, no matter what 
the economy looks like when they 
graduate. Something has to be done.
Of course, there are a lot of 
ways we could do better by college 
students. 
Eliminating 
student 
debt altogether while also moving 
forward to include college in our 
national promise of free universal 
public education would make the 
most sense. 

Inflation and student loan rates are 
creating unsustainable debt

RYAN MCCARTY
Opinion Contributor 

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

REBECCA SMITH
 Opinion Columnist 

VANESSA KIEFER 
AND KATE WEILAND 
Managing Editors

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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