Furniture drive helps students in need
Zack Sanford
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: News
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The University Center for International Education (UCIE) and Student Government (SG) collaboratively run Furniture Drive, being organized for on-campus international students whose promised furniture was not there, or off-campus international students who have been displaced because of housing difficulties. They are calling all donors and volunteers to assist in the full furnishing of nine apartments.
UCIE Graduate Assistant Manasi Kakade speaks of one student who has been forcibly removed from his Meadow Run dwelling, having lived there with a clean disciplinary and payment record for the 2006-2007 school year.
"Meadow Run, the off campus apartments, they would not allow him to renew his lease. He has been paying his rent regularly, not a problem at all and never had any other problems, nothing. But he wasn't allowed to renew his lease. He was legally forced from his apartment," Kakade says.
Moody Kassem, Director of International Student Affairs, speaks of the plight of other students living off-campus, who were told they needed to have a Social Security Number (SSN) and proof of income to continue living in their current dwellings. This presents an obvious dilemma: one can't acquire a SSN without being offered a job in the U.S.
Other students recently arrived from their native countries had organized their living spaces through the UCIE office and were promised fully furnished on campus housing but have now moved into empty living spaces, Kakade explains. Regardless of why these students need help or what university department or off-campus landlords may be at fault, it is imperative in any functional community that it welcomes and helps to acclimate its newest members.
The furniture drive will make it very easy for the WSU community to do just that.
On Sept. 30 and Oct. 13, a crew in a rented U-Haul will travel around the Dayton area and gather furniture and household items from donors wherever they are located, and will have their own volunteer movers to get items into the trucks and into the apartments; the international students who are recipients of the furniture will also assist in the process.
According to Kassem, some campus groups have already pledged assistance, including Beta Phi Omega. To pledge your support by moving or donating, call 775-5508 or kassem.2@wright.edu. Small household items may be dropped off in the Student Union room 029h at any time.
Even though their tenure here is in its infancy, the level of assistance these students receive in dealing with these issues may define much of their experience in the U.S. and at Wright State.
UCIE Graduate Assistant Manasi Kakade speaks of one student who has been forcibly removed from his Meadow Run dwelling, having lived there with a clean disciplinary and payment record for the 2006-2007 school year.
"Meadow Run, the off campus apartments, they would not allow him to renew his lease. He has been paying his rent regularly, not a problem at all and never had any other problems, nothing. But he wasn't allowed to renew his lease. He was legally forced from his apartment," Kakade says.
Moody Kassem, Director of International Student Affairs, speaks of the plight of other students living off-campus, who were told they needed to have a Social Security Number (SSN) and proof of income to continue living in their current dwellings. This presents an obvious dilemma: one can't acquire a SSN without being offered a job in the U.S.
Other students recently arrived from their native countries had organized their living spaces through the UCIE office and were promised fully furnished on campus housing but have now moved into empty living spaces, Kakade explains. Regardless of why these students need help or what university department or off-campus landlords may be at fault, it is imperative in any functional community that it welcomes and helps to acclimate its newest members.
The furniture drive will make it very easy for the WSU community to do just that.
On Sept. 30 and Oct. 13, a crew in a rented U-Haul will travel around the Dayton area and gather furniture and household items from donors wherever they are located, and will have their own volunteer movers to get items into the trucks and into the apartments; the international students who are recipients of the furniture will also assist in the process.
According to Kassem, some campus groups have already pledged assistance, including Beta Phi Omega. To pledge your support by moving or donating, call 775-5508 or kassem.2@wright.edu. Small household items may be dropped off in the Student Union room 029h at any time.
Even though their tenure here is in its infancy, the level of assistance these students receive in dealing with these issues may define much of their experience in the U.S. and at Wright State.
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