“Pizza Jen” is not impressed with Williams students.

Located in the lower right corner of page three [of the Record], I spotted an article written by a college senior who had stayed at Williams over the summer to work as a psychology research assistant. I was captivated by the title. By the end of the article I wanted to slap the insepid debutante into the reality of the less fortunate.

…

First of all, let’s talk about lifestyle sacrifices. A lifestyle sacrifice is having to give up the second car your family needs because you can no longer afford the payments. A lifestyle sacrifice is having to tell a five-year-old she can’t have the yogurt drinks she wants because the family budget has been stretched to the limit due to rising gas prices and stagnent wages. A lifestyle sacrifice is not about the new enclosed parking garage you could have parked your car in, but weren’t allowed to.

Second, unless you live in a mansion, most of the “disparate housing” at Williams is ten-times better than affordable housing in North Adams. And I think I can find a few people who can put to shame her whine about inadequate transportation. Has she tried using the B-Bus. I’m sure she hasn’t, and I’m sure the people who do could give her an earful about being late to work because public transit doesn’t run on time.

I guess when your part of a two-parent family, where both parents work forty hours and you can’t afford to move your children out of subsidized housing, you earn the right to be cynical about the lifestyle sacrifices being made by the wealthy and pampered elitest children of America.

I hope she experiences real life, like the rest of us, as opposed to being the stereo-typical silver spoon trustfund baby that I’m sure she either is, or is striving to be. Somehow, I just don’t see it happening.

Read the whole thing. Alas, I can’t find the article she references on-line, although this is one by the named author. Comments:

1) Great stuff!

2) It is interesting to see how locals, especially locals with less money, perceive Williams students. I suspect that similar opinions have been voiced for over 200 years.

3) I would bet a fair amount of money that Marita Campos-Melady ‘06 is not a debutante — not that I am stereotyping women from Santa Fe or anything. But how daring is she? A daring Eph would invite Pizza Jen for coffee. Excellent conversation would be inevitable.