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Low Bar

The life of a college student is fraught with many complications but what the kids are going through in UC is a different level of pain

experiences of students searching for housing drew stories of stress-triggered hair loss and nausea, fear of having to drop out of school and disproportionate harm to low-income communities of color.

One person, who asked for anonymity, described living in a car for the entire year and reaching out to campus officials for help, only to be told to "sleep in Walmart parking lots."

If that is the experience a young person has coming into adulthood, it sets the tone for their expectations in life going forward. Of as a student they could at best hope to sleep in a Walmart parking lot without being thrown off, chances are that they will settle for severe underemployment coming out of college. With that kind of baseline a well below average salary and very long working hours will feel like an accomplishment. The person can afford a bed in a house shared with ten other folks in much the same situation. They will not to expect much better than that. A college student does not need a life of luxury but one of dignity should be the minimum expectation

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