In just 15 hours, Cornell student Jonah Okike-Hephzibah successfully raised more than the $14,000 he needed in tuition payments to remain at Cornell this semester on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe.
Okike-Hephzibah explains on his page that he is a “first-generation undocumented minority student from a single-parent home shared with my 5 siblings” who was only able to transfer to Cornell’s Engineering School from Santa Monica College because of the $40,000 Jack Kent Cooke scholarship he received. He was, however, unaware that the scholarship would only be applied on some undisclosed semesterly pro-rata basis, leaving him with $14,000 in tuition payments due Oct. 1.
Okike-Hephzibah writes on his page, “I am incredibly grateful to all of the people who have played a role in helping me reach this point. More than anything, I want to accomplish my educational goals and give back by designing innovations such as prosthetic limbs for veterans. But to do that I find myself in this terrifying and humbling position, needing, once again, to reach out for help so that I can continue to work hard to achieve my dreams. If you can contribute anything at all towards my tuition, it would mean the world to me.”
Many fellow students took to Facebook to share Okike-Hephzibah’s GoFundMe page Tuesday evening and urged others to donate. Early Wednesday morning, the Student Assembly (SA) shared the link on its page, writing “Help out a fellow student! Best of luck, Jonah.”
Curiously, many SA members are actively planning to raid the Students Helping Students (SHS) emergency financial aid fund, which Okike-Hephzibah could have appealed to for some financial relief, in order to finance Anabel’s Grocery’s startup costs. Arguably, Okike-Hephzibah could have applied for some financial aid from SHS to help him meet his tuition payments, since the fund’s actual purpose is to help those facing unexpected financial duress. Specifically, the original SHS legislation stipulates that part of the fund go towards “emergency purposes” for students facing “unexpected expenses creating financial hardship”.
While it is debatable whether a reasonable person should have foreseen the tuition bill coming due, Okike-Hephziba certainly did not expect the expense and it evidently caused his financial hardship. The real issue here is that Matthew Stefanko and Emma Johnston’s plan to squander the SHS fund for the grocery store could conceivably render the fund unable to help future cases of those in similar situations as Okike-Hephziba’s.
The question (one of many) all those voting on the matter, if it ever comes to a vote, should ask themselves is whether this emergency financial aid fund is better suited for helping students in financial emergencies or buying refrigerators and iPads for a grocery store.
