The Princeton Class Confessions page on Facebook allows first generation and low-income students to anonymously share testimonies or ask questions about their experiences, PrincetonHidden Minority Council co-chair Brittney Watkins ’16 said.
The page was started by the Hidden Minority Council on Oct. 18.
The page proposes to encourage conversation about the issues that these students face, and to make them feel comfortable in their presence here on campus, Watkins added.
Matthew Taitano ’18, the technology chair of the Hidden Minority Council who started the Facebook page, explained that first generation or low-income students can write their responses on a Google form anonymously, which the technology committee then reads through to ensure that they are appropriate, and subsequently posts publicly on Facebook.
The page has averaged about 100 likes per day, has reached about 27,000 people and is continuing to grow, Taitano said.
“I didn’t think it would have such a great impact in such a short amount of time,” he said.
Taitano is a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.
Watkins explained that the 1vyG conference, which is intended to help first-generation students celebrate their identity, helped inspire the page. Other schools such as Columbia and Stanford presented their own Class Confessions pages during the conference, and the Hidden Minority Council saw the potential of using such a tool to address the stigma toward first generation and low-income students that exists at the University today, Watkins added.
“I saw that it had a really big impact on their campuses, and I thought that it was important to bring that to Princeton as well,” Taitano said.
Taitano added that he decided to spearhead the page itself because he had always been interested in the area of technology and the role it plays in social interactions.
According to Dallas Nan ’16, co-chair of the Hidden Minority Council, the council had previously set up a similar campaign that publicized statements from students describing situations when they felt marginalized due to their economic status.He noted that while this photo campaign had identified the names and presented pictures of the speakers, there is also great value in the anonymity of this new Facebook page, as it allows low-income students to speak about their experiences without feeling ashamed of their identity, all the while ensuring that people who might make low-income students uncomfortable do not feel condemned for their actions.
Rae Perez ’19, who applied to the University through the QuestBridge scholarship program, said that she has not yet felt directly stigmatized by members of the University community. However, she added that the wealth that exists on campus is quite evident, and that she thinks that the page is a great way to address the real pressure that exists on campus for students to be of a certain standard of economic class.
“Sometimes I do feel uncomfortable when people say things like, ‘Oh, it was only a hundred bucks,’ ” Perez said.
Watkins noted that the Class Confessions page is one of the many ways that the Hidden Minority Council is facilitating conversation about first generation, low-income students. She explained that, in accordance with council events, there has also been a dinner for first-generation freshmen students, and that there are plans to host workshops on financial aid and lectures on class and culture.
Watkins added that, while members of the first-generation, low-income community as well as faculty, administration and the Undergraduate Student Government are beginning to start more conversations about the issues faced by low-income students, the Hidden Minority Council and the Class Confessions page intend to influence the broader student body to actively think about the circumstances others come from, and the struggles they face.
“So I think one thing that we really have to keep striving to do, and the Class Confessions page is really one way to do that, is to help influence the broader student Princeton culture, in thinking about how to accommodate these students and what policies can be implemented in doing so.” Watkins said.
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