During the past year, the Northwestern community has engaged in dialogue surrounding the issue of socioeconomic inclusivity. These conversations, and the heightened sense of awareness that they have created, have sparked a new commitment to prioritizing these issues as we consider what it means to be an engaged student at NU.

Student extracurricular involvement is a crucial part of the NU experience. From day one, students are confronted with a plethora of student groups that each offer unique opportunities for growth, community and experiential learning. Becoming involved is often viewed as a key component to a positive NU experience: More than 91 percent of NU students are involved in at least one student organization and spend, on average, a minimum of five hours per student organization each week. Students learn from this involvement too: Non-classroom experiences give students a safe environment to develop a sense of self, work collaboratively with others, relate to peers from different backgrounds and more.

Despite these benefits, many students struggle to balance involvement with their commitment to academics, their personal health and their need to earn income. Students who rely on a steady income to finance their education must often prioritize work over extracurriculars. By attempting to balance the demands of working with involvement in student groups, lower-income students often face stress unparalleled by the average NU student or are left out of student group involvement entirely.

The choice between taking time-intensive leadership opportunities and working shouldn’t exist. Students should not have to make a financial sacrifice to be involved in communities they care about. For these reasons, Associated Student Government, in collaboration with student group leaders and the Center for Student Involvement, is taking a tangible step toward increasing inclusivity among student organizations through the creation of the Student Engagement Stipend program. This new program is intended to help relieve the financial burden on students across campus and to open up leadership opportunities to a wider group of our peers and classmates.

Through the program, stipends of up to $500 will be available to students who are engaged as leaders on campus in any NU-recognized student group. The applications will be evaluated by a student committee that evaluates applications on merit from a need-blind perspective and the Center for Student Involvement that looks at financial aid. Though financial aid will be considered, any student who feels that a stipend would make the opportunity to make meaningful change within their organization and on campus accessible to them is encouraged to apply.

We hope that this stipend will help relieve some finance-based stress and give students of all socioeconomic levels greater opportunity to impact the NU community. Every student’s involvement on campus is valuable, and no one deserves to feel as if their opportunities are limited by financial need.

Apply at bit.ly/EngageStipend by November 19.

Signed,

The Student Engagement Stipend Committee

Erik Zorn (chair), Amanda Meyer, Amanda Walsh, Andrew Green, Annabel Liou, Jaime Toplin, Jake Rothstein, Jourdan Dorrell, Lakin Davis, Matt Herndon, Olivia Probetts and Sarah Carthen Watson