On April 16, 2018, 27 student arrestees received citations from Yale police, each with a fine of $92. These students were sitting in at the Financial Aid Office until Yale agreed to eliminate the student income contribution. Instead of eliminating a discriminatory financial aid policy that divides our campus along lines of class and race, Yale chose to take punitive action against its own students by arresting them, a punishment which includes a $92 fine.

We are asking for support to help us cover the fine, as many of us who risked arrest today are ourselves low-income students. The fine is even steeper on top of the nearly $6000 we owe Yale on a yearly basis, thanks to the requirement set by the student income contribution. Yet we decided to risk arrest anyway, because we believe in a campus where ALL students are equally valued for how they choose to contribute to Yale –– not for what Yale compels them to give –– and it is this community that we want to build for the future.