Non matriculated students at the College of Staten Island are not allowed to partake in club activities due to a lack of activity fees.
By E. Milimoh
At the CUNY College in Staten Island, Individuals that take part in specialized higher education programs are not given the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities.
This is for a few reasons, for one being that they are not recognized as enrolled students according to the college, due to a lack of payment towards the activity fee that is included in our students’ tuition. These higher education programs do not require their students to pay tuition to enroll in their programs so there is no record of them being enrolled the formal way. These students are provided with the bare minimum access to their school resources for the position they hold in the school’s communities through this program.
The Melissa Riggio higher education program provided by the AHRC Program supports individuals that face neurodivergent and development disabilities and provides them with the opportunity to live and learn to function independently within society. This ‘”Without Walls’ location is based on the college of Staten Island and gives young students that face these invisible disabilities the opportunity to experience college life and college education classes.
College life consists of all sorts of interesting activities from sororities to self-advocacy groups, to hobbies and club events, but these opportunities are not made available to the students of the Melissa Riggio program. To participate Students would need to sign up with student identification, since these students don’t have the ability to access these organizations since they don’t receive these ID Numbers they are left to watch from the sidelines as their friends and fellow students take the opportunity to explore their passions as active members of the student social community.
For any person or student affiliated with this institution, they should be able to access and use all the resources and opportunities to stay adventurous in their education. In this case especially, these individuals are limited to the possible positive aspects of being in those social groups. This to one degree or another is part of what college is all about, the ability to branch out in all areas that are made available by the facility for every student that has a desire to higher their education. Whether that is through an online photography class or hiking in various places all over Staten Island as a group. CSI is a community and a space for young adults to be able to do these sorts of things and has a responsibility as an educational institution to make itself available to all members of this community.
How can we do better by these students? For one, they could give the students of these sorts of programs the ability to feel as part of the campus family as anyone else. Whether that is by giving them more access to certain aspects of college life and campus activities, or to at least be recognized and acknowledged in our community as people who strive to learn and connect with others just as any other student would.
Although I have been distressed with the lack of active clubs in my interest area as a CSI student, it is humbling to remember that I even have the opportunity to choose.