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双语•智库 | Unbelievable!36%美国大学生穷得吃不饱饭?!

2018-04-26 Yee君 译·世界

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美国是全球最发达的国家,美国的大学拥有全球最先进的教育资源。要是有人说在美国大学里,很多学生穷得吃不上饭,你会不会觉得很惊讶?但这确实是美国研究机构经过调查得出的结论。

 

“双语·智库第二十四期,Yee君带你来了解下美国大学生的“饥饿现状”↓

 

According to a first-of-its-kind survey released Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, 36 percent of students at 66 surveyed colleges and universities do not get enough to eat, and a similar number lack a secure place to live.

美国天普大学和威斯康辛希望实验室研究人员公布的开创性调查显示,在接受调查的66所高校中,36%的学生吃不饱,并且还有同等比例的学生居无定所。

 

▲美国天普大学与威斯康辛希望实验室调查报告

 

The report, which is the first to include students from two-year, four-year, private and public universities, including GWU, found that nearly 1 in 10 community college students have gone a whole day without eating in the past month. That number was 6 percent among university students. Any institution was invited to participate in the survey, though the sample was not designed to be representative of colleges nationwide.

这份报告首次涵盖了包括乔治华盛顿大学在内的两年制、四年制、私立和公立大学的学生。调查发现,每10名社区大学生(译者注:美国的社区大学是美国教育体系的重要组成部分,提供两年制的初级高等教育。)中有近1人在上个月中一整天都没吃东西。而在大学生中,这个数字为6%。该调查样本并不仅限于全国各大学,许多机构也受邀参与。

 

乔治华盛顿大学

 

Researchers blame ballooning college costs, inadequate aid packages and growing enrollment among low-income students — as well as some colleges’ unwillingness to admit they have a hunger problem. College hunger is not a new issue, researchers caution. But it appears to be growing worse, and not merely because college is getting more expensive.

研究人员谴责大学费用飙升、救助计划不足、招收低收入家庭学生的人数增多,并且很多高校都不愿意承认本校存在饥饿问题。研究人员警示,高校饥饿问题并非最近才出现。但是目前这个情况似乎越来越严重,这不仅是因为上学费用更加昂贵。

 

美国大学学费增长示意图。图片来源:界面新闻

 

"Prices have gone up over time," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy at Temple and the lead author of the report. "But the rising price is just a piece. This is a systemic problem."

“价格在不断上涨,” 天普大学高等教育政策教授兼本报告主要作者Sara Goldrick-Rab说,“但是价格上涨只是其中一部分。这是个系统性问题。”

 

Goldrick-Rab's report is based on data from 43,000 students at 66 schools and used the Department of Agriculture's assessment for measuring hunger. That means the thousands of students it classifies as having "low food security" aren't merely avoiding the dining hall or saving lunch money for beer: They're skipping meals, or eating smaller meals, because they don't have enough money for food.

Goldrick-Rab所作报告的数据基于66所学校43000名学生的调查,采用农业部的标准衡量饥饿。这就意味着报告中划定为“低级食品安全”的几万学生不是因为不愿意去食堂吃饭或把午饭钱省下来买啤酒,而是因为没有足够的钱负担起食物,所以他们有时不吃饭或者只吃一点。

 

 

On top of that, the report found, 46 percent of community college students and 36 percent of university students struggle to pay for housing and utilities. In the past year, 12 percent of community college students and 9 percent of university students have slept in shelters or in places not intended as housing, or did not know from one day to the next where they would sleep.

更重要的是,报告发现46%的社区大学生以及36%的大学生付不起房租和水电费。去年,12%的社区大学生及9%的大学生在庇护所或是不满足居住条件的地方睡觉,有时也并不知道第二天会睡在哪里。

 

Measuring college hunger and homelessness is difficult. Researchers depend on universities to distribute the surveys and on a self-selecting group of students to fill them out.

衡量高校饥饿和无家可归情况不是一项简单的工作。研究人员依靠大学来分发这些调查问卷,学生自我选择进行问卷填写。

 

Goldrick-Rab says those constraints make it likely that college hunger is actually more prevalent than her data show. There may also be more variability between different areas of the country or different types of institutions, though several education policy analysts not involved with the survey said they believe this is the best national estimate available.

Goldrick-Rab称,基于这些限制条件,很可能高校的实际饥饿情况比数据显示更加严重。尽管一些没有参与调查的教育政策分析人士说,他们认为这个结果是目前全国最靠谱的数据,但在全国不同地区或不同类型的机构之间也可能存在更大的差异。

 

The numbers align with other recent surveys on the issue. The University of California has found that 40 percent of its students suffer food insecurity. At four state universities in Illinois, that number is 35 percent.

这些数字与最近关于该问题的其他调查一致。加州大学发现40%的学生面临食品不安全的问题。在伊利诺伊州的四所州立大学,这一数字为35%。

 

“Not a single university administrator wanted to acknowledge this was an issue five years ago,” said Rachel Sumekh, the chief executive of Swipe Out Hunger, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit. “But the numbers are amazing. It helps us make the case to universities that they need to do something about this.”

洛杉矶非盈利组织“消除饥饿”的负责人Rachel Sumekh说:“五年前,没有一个大学管理者愿意承认这是一个问题。但这些数字是惊人的,我们可以借此让大学知道他们需要为此做点什么。”

 

Experts say the factors underlying campus hunger are complex. More low-income students are enrolling in college, thanks to expanded needs-based scholarship and grant programs, a move away from standardized test scores as part of the application process, and other initiatives designed to recruit more diverse students.

专家说,大学生挨饿的原因是复杂的。在以前的学校申请程序中,考试成绩是标准化考核的一部分,但是目前大学做出了一些调整措施,逐渐扩充了基于需求的奖学金制度、助学金计划及其他一些促进招生多样化的机制,因此大学对低收入家庭学生的录取率有所提升。

 

But once they get on campus, low-income students often find that the patchwork of grants and scholarships they’ve assembled are not enough to cover all of their expenses.

可是一旦低收入家庭的学生进入校园,他们往往会发现,东拼西凑的助学金和奖学金并不足以支付全部开支。

 

“There has been an uptick in low-income students on campus, but there hasn’t been a corresponding change in university policy to welcome and prepare for these students,” said Anthony Abraham Jack, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

哈佛大学研究生院助理教授安东尼·亚伯拉罕·杰克说:“虽然学校的低收入家庭学生人数有所上升,但学校的政策并没有为了迎接和应对这些学生做出相应的变化。”

 

In the 2013-2014 academic year, room and board for the average undergraduate totaled $9,929, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a 50 percent increase over 20 years prior.

据美国国家教育统计中心的数据,2013-2014学年,普通大学生的食宿总计9929美元(约合人民币62807元),比20年前增加了50%。

 

Those figures are higher for private and four-year colleges. And they don’t include incidental expenses, from printing and laundry fees to nightly room charges assessed against students who can’t leave for spring break or summer vacation.

对于私立和四年制大学,这些数字更高,而且还不包括印刷、洗衣等额外开支,也不包括针对那些春假或暑假不离开学校的学生收取的住宿费。

 

On top of that, students have fewer ways to provide for themselves: Competition for low-wage jobs has increased, and strict work requirements for food stamp recipients mean that many cannot rely on the federal safety net. Even higher income students who don't have their parents' full financial support can find themselves facing difficult choices.

除此之外,学生自力更生的途径越来越少:低工资工作的竞争加剧了,对食品券领取者的严格工作要求意味着许多人不能依赖政府。即使是没有父母全面经济支持的收入较高的学生,也会发现自己面临着艰难的选择。

 

“We know for some students, even one small financial problem can throw them off course,” said Tim Miller, the associate dean of students in the Division of Student Affairs at George Washington. “That is serious. We want to help students overcome those issues.”

乔治华盛顿大学学生事务处副主任蒂姆·米勒表示:“我们了解到,对于一些学生来说,即使某个很小的经济困难也会让他们辍学。这就很严重了,我们想帮助学生渡过难关。”

 

With a 2017-2018 tuition of more than $53,000, and a brand-new food court hawking poke bowls and yogurt topped with rose petals, GWU does not outwardly look like a place where students encounter hunger.

乔治华盛顿大学2017-2018年度学费超过5.3万美元(约合人民币33.5万元),还有一个全新的美食广场,出售“泼奇碗”(译者注:一种夏威夷网红美食)和洒着玫瑰花瓣的酸奶,表面上看起来这并不像一个学生会挨饿的地方。

 

夏威夷网红美食“泼奇碗”

 

But there are still students struggling. Emma Montero, a sophomore undergrad, works three jobs, including a federal work-study gig designed to help low-income students cover expenses, but neither her wages nor a series of grants, scholarships and low-interest loans have made ends meet, she said.

但依然有学生过得很艰苦。艾玛·蒙特罗是一名大二学生,在做三份工作,其中包括一项联邦政府的勤工俭学任务,旨在帮助低收入学生承担费用。但她说无论薪水还是一系列补贴、奖学金、低息贷款,都抵不上支出。

 

To alleviate these issues, GW opened a food pantry in 2016, stocked with canned goods, produce and day-old bagels. Hundreds of schools have recently launched these sorts of pantries: Membership in the College and University Food Bank Alliance has swelled from 15 in 2012 to more than 600 today.

为了缓解这些问题,乔治华盛顿大学于2016年开辟了一个食品储藏室,用于存贮罐装食品、农产品和放了一天的百吉饼。最近数百所院校都设置了这样的食品储藏室,成为“学院和大学食物银行联盟”会员的院校数量从2012年的15所增长到现在的600多所。

 

 

Colleges are taking other steps as well. Some have altered their dining plans to cover more meals or to offer more low-cost options, or have begun distributing free dining hall vouchers to students who need them. Others have partnered with nonprofits to redistribute unused meals to hungry students.

高校也在采取其他措施。有的高校更改了餐饮方案,以丰富膳食种类,或者提供更多廉价的选择,亦或开始为有需要的学生发放免费餐券。另一些高校则与非营利组织合作,将未售出的饮食重新分配给挨饿的学生。

 

Michigan State University, the first school to establish an on-campus pantry, has begun screening students for food insecurity during routine visits to its campus health center. In New York, St. John’s University has started advertising an emergency fund that disburses small, one-time grants to students with unexpected expenses.

作为首个设立校内食品室的院校,密歇根州立大学已经开始在学生平时去校医院就医时对饮食不足问题进行筛查。在纽约,圣约翰大学开始推广一项应急基金,为经济负担过大的学生提供一次性小额补贴。

 

“This is top-of-mind right now on many campuses,” said Amelia Parnell, the vice president for research and policy at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. “When we think about reasons students drop out, financial issues — like the ability to pay for food and housing — are one of them.”

全国学生人事管理者协会负责研究与政策的副会长阿梅利亚·帕内尔表示:“这是很多高校面对的当务之急。我们认为经济问题是学生辍学原因之一,如付不起伙食费和住宿费。”

 

But advocates say higher education is still not doing enough to solve student hunger. They have called on the federal government to provide free or reduced-cost meals at colleges, as is already done in primary and secondary schools. This fall, the federal Government Accountability Office is scheduled to release a study on the extent of college hunger, which gives advocates hope that lawmakers are paying attention to the issue.

但倡议人士表示高等教育在解决学生果腹问题上做的还不够,他们呼吁联邦政府为高校提供免费饮食或降低餐饮价格,这些举措已经在中小学实施。联邦政府问责局今秋将对高校饥饿问题的程度和范围展开调研,倡议人士从中看到希望,因为立法者已开始关注这一问题。

 

Advocates would like to see changes to the food stamp program to make it more available to college students. There are also calls to reevaluate the financial aid process, with particular attention to how the government assesses "need."

他们希望看到食品券计划有所改变,让更多大学生享受到这一政策。还有人呼吁重新评估援助程序,尤其是政府对“需要”的评定。

 

英文来源:华盛顿邮报(有删节)

编译:Yee君


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