Reasons Why We Should We Help The Homeless On Campus

Imagine yourself homeless with nowhere to go and no one to call. You have nothing you need to survive and you know under these conditions you will not last more than a couple months. Plus you have no idea when your next meal is going to be and when you’ll get the proper things you need to deal with the weather changes, whether they be extreme or drastic. According to the article, “Homeless on Campus,” from the Progressive Magazine website published on July 1, 2004, the author Eleanor J Bader states that Jenn Hecker, the organizer and Director of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, believes the rising costs for student housing is possibly one of the major causes. In fact, Hecker also cites a 2003 survey that claims the minimum wage needed to pay for a two-bedroom apartment in the United States to be $15.21, about $7.00 more than the minimum wage today. These are low income students’ who can’t afford to pay these funds. Several of these students flee campus, afraid they might be judged by their peers. The article “Homeless on Campus” is strong because of Bader’s successful use of the interrelated concepts of rhetoric like ethos, logos, and pathos.

In this article, Bader used logos throughout the article with plenty of details and information. “During the 1960s, people from all over the country were going to Washington and making a lot of noise since the war on poverty was motivated by this noise,” and as of now they aren’t being noticed. It is made very clear that students did not plan for tragedies like being disowned by parents, thrown out because they cannot afford to pay living expenses, or just being abandoned and neglected altogether. As a result of this, homeless college students can suffer from unsafe places of sleeping, such as “cars, parks, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations”(2015 Annual Report Council report on Homelessness), which can lead to extreme causes of death.These statistics are a few of Bader’s reasons to prove that homelessness is a notable issue that many colleges don’t notice or choose to not care. In particular, Bader claimed that “Broadway, Montgomery and Dahir are three of the 44 homeless students from across the country who have been awarded LeTendre grants since 1999,” meaning this supports Bader’s idea on hopefully raising awareness for these homeless college students and low-income students. Therefore, the details and data emphasize the appeal to logos and exhibit that this problem should be important enough to discuss because it can possibly help decrease the amount students who are homeless or becoming homeless.

Most students have worked so hard to get into college, why would one want to drop out because of financial issues? Life is very unexpected, and Bader believes that. Bader displayed a variety of appeals to pathos by connecting their story with readers in a sentimental perspective. Specifically, in the second paragraph, the author describes a homeless student who is a single mother. The student reported “It was horrible,’ Aesha says, ‘we slept on benches, and it was mostly crowded so I was so scared that I sat on my bag and held onto the stroller day and night, from Friday to Monday.” The portrayal of the struggles of being a homeless single mother, along with all the emotions that a normal college student may feel throughout that time, overall strongly expresses the argument and its importance. In other words, the author tries to get readers to mourn for the homeless students by putting in phrases such as, “you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” “believes,” “says,” “felt,” and “wrote” (Bader). In the last paragraph, the author stated that a “cleaning woman knew what was going on and turned a blind eye to the arrangement so that both students could shower in the dorms and kept their toothbrushes and cosmetics in one of the two department bathrooms which I gave them keys to” these phrases can unleash negative feelings about homeless college students, which can allow readers to feel sorrowful for students who can’t afford certain funds and have nowhere to go once the day is done at school. Colleges need more faculty members, such as BR or the cleaning lady, who are more sympathetic and caring towards homeless students who are trying to be the best student they can because they know education can’t be taken from them unlike a home. It takes willpower and motivation for a homeless student with several struggles to keep school pushing. These negative phrases bear the injustice that college students are witnessing if they become homeless, which is also an appeal to pathos that include the readers’ anger and arrogance towards homeless students.

Throughout the article, Bader used several strong sources that reinforced her appeal to ethos while supporting her argument. The sources included, Jenn Hecker, Beth Kelly who is a family service counselor at the Clinton Family Inn at a New York City transitional housing program, and Barbara Duffield who is an executive director of National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (Bader). Including these sources advances Bader’s character for exemplifying that Bader has researched and has provided facts, data, and as well as professional beliefs that agree with her claim. Therefore, Bader used distinctive examples from students who were homeless at a point in time so that they may support the problem so that it could demonstrate that Bader has a personal interest and was personally involved with the situation. Bader interviewed a homeless student named Adriana Broadway who replied 'for five years, I stayed here and there with friends,' she wrote on her funding application, and “I’d stay with whoever would take me in and allow me to live under their roof.”. Bader has classified ethos in a very enthralling way making it easier for her to be more dependable on the problem of homeless college students so that others can start addressing this problem to find a solution.

All in all, some students who aren’t dealing with homelessness may feel upset due to the fact they put in so much effort to receive scholarships and aid, while homeless students who literally can’t afford the expenses may receive aid without working as hard. Other students will judge homeless students for even trying to stay in college because they can’t afford it, and assume they don’t belong. Bader began the article by effectively using ethos to display her understanding on the topic, logos to designate the data and analogies that carry her argument to prevent homelessness for all college students, and pathos to express the emotional perspective that is directed towards readers. Unfortunately, homeless college students became an ongoing problem that Bader and several others are still attempting to solve to avert this tragedy for all students.