Recently my friend has been struggling to cover her health insurance plan. Last year, the school covered it. This year, when she emailed the financial office, someone replied that the school ran out of grants and she was on her own. When she went to the office in person though, she learned about ways to use work-study or other options to cover it. Long story short, talking to different people gave her different answers. This is just one of a few financial difficulties facing low-income students at Northwestern.

Colleges in the United States have notably high tuition compared to schools in other nations, if not the highest. And with an about $61,000 sticker price, NU ranks as one of the most expensive in the nation.

I will not even pretend to know all the problems facing low-income students, but having heard such stories, I believe the Center for Student Enrichment Services is a needed addition in order for NU to truly serve low-income and first-generation students. But for the Center to make a difference, it needs to be effective, accessible and inclusive.

Hopefully with the center, bureaucratic problems – such as in my friend’s case – will no longer occur. NU has many decentralized offices. I personally experienced one person in one office telling me to visit someone else in another office who then referred me to another who told me to visit someone I had already seen. Communication is key to an effective organization that gives students the help they need when they need it.

The center also needs to make its presence known. I know, as an international student, the International Office  is there if I need it. It should be the same for low-income and first-generation students too. Finances can be a touchy and a sensitive issue that many people might not want to talk about; all the more reason the school should take the initiative to approach the students. The University can do so using preexisting structures such as residence assistants or Wildcat Welcome programing.

Most importantly, this dialogue and service should include not only the main target group – the low-income and first-generation students – but should include all students. If inclusion is the goal, then the center needs to take a holistic approach.

As a freshman during Wildcat Welcome, the Diversity and Inclusion Essential NU made an impact on me. I remember everyone standing up for each of the different categories we identified ourselves with and noticing who or how many students stood up for each category. This session made me more aware of how diverse NU is. I felt so moved that I thought going forward that I would actively discuss what such diversity meant in our community – the good and the bad and perhaps anything in between. But that momentum quickly died down. The ENU just became “that thing we did Welcome Week.”

Last year, a dialogue aware of socioeconomic background differences emerged with NU Class Confessions. More dialogues like those should follow and, with it, tangible actions to make a difference.

One of the core values NU states is inclusion. I hope it’s not just an abstract concept.

Heiwon Shin is a Medill sophomore. She can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a letter to the editor to [email protected].