Amidst the ongoing pandemic, unemployment in America has impacted many lives. It skyrocketed to over 14% back in March, and has slowly been lowering, but remains frightening when compared to numbers from one year ago.

The CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Donald Trump on March 27, attempted to aid the economy. Many were quick to see glaring flaws in the plan that left those who truly needed the funds without significant help.

Many students were ineligible to receive the $1,200 stimulus check because they were claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax return. This contrasted with the lived experiences of many college students in America who are in dire need of stimulus funds.

Ian Luebbers, freshman in engineering, described his frustration with his exclusion from the program. He said that they looked at people who had paid taxes beforehand, so there’s a lot of people who just recently went into the workforce. For him, as he started working this summer, didn’t have any tax returns for 2019.

“People in my situation, people just getting out in the world wouldn’t qualify for these checks. I think they should have based it on social security numbers and age range, rather than participation in the economy,” he said.

Nicole Park, sophomore in ACES, elaborated on her worry for others in worse situations. She said it wasn’t that big of a deal given she was a dependent, but she did notice a lot of people who were her age who may not be necessarily dependent or living with their parents but labeled as dependent on their taxes, and then their situation would be a lot different.

Amit Sawhney, freshman in engineering, opened up about his feelings on being left out.

“I’m personally okay with it as my family wasn’t in a financial situation where it was a huge deal, but I understand why the government doesn’t like the decision to hand out money to every single college student,” he said. “They should incentivize or provide other kinds of relief to college students.”

Brooklyn Clough, freshman majoring in AHS, said she felt kind of cheated because since she was a claimed dependent, she was excluded, but because she was 18, her mother didn’t get the stimulus for having children.

“I felt like it was unfair because my mom gets nothing, I get nothing. Money’s tough, so anything helps,” she said.

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