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Iraqi Network for Social Media ( INSM)

Sep 5, 2010

Financial Aid System Needs Radical Reform

by Pola Kamal
AUI-S has been offering jobs to its students who are on financial aid in order to offset some of their tuitions. Everyone is glad that AUI-S helps its students to pay the tuition, which students might not be able to pay without those jobs. It seems the jobs that have been given to students are out of sympathy rather for the benefit of the university. Those jobs are only to keep the students busy and in the mean time to lessen their tuitions a little bit. The simplicity of the jobs themselves and the ways work study students are treated raises doubt about the results.


Students have been farting around because their jobs are just a piece of cake. They go home any time they want, they do whatever they want. I am not blaming students because their jobs are too easy to the degrees that do not require them to feel responsible. My concern is this feeling of irresponsibility that students are getting used to now and which will prompt them to grow a negative attitude of not getting things done down the line when they become leaders in society. This is not only backfires and undo everything that AUI-S is working for, but most importantly it is in irreconcilable conflict with AUI-S’s ambition which is producing creative, productive, and skillful students who can serve the Iraqi community even during tough situations.

The current situation:

One day you see a new employee and the next day she or he drags his wife or her husband into the new business. It sounds like nepotism plays a role in recruiting employees. Anyway, I am not trying to marginalize our friends, the local employees, or downgrade their abilities nor to elevate students above local employees. My point here is there is no doubt that our students are competent as our local employees. Everyone who knows English and willing to work can handle most of the jobs at AUI-S, and I am sure those jobs are not beyond our students grasps. Our academic students English as well as most of the employees even those who are working in high positions. I am sure students will fight tooth and nail to prioritize their study and do their part time jobs as well; as a result, there is no need to be skeptical about

My suggestion:

Here I am about offering a feasible plan to take precaution to prevent the spread of the disease. Why does not AUI-S recruit the employees from students, I mean the real employees who take responsibility and hold themselves accountable? We all know AUI-S moves to the campus soon which means bringing in more employees. i am aware that AUI-S financial ability is limited; therefore, I am not trying to get AUI-S spend more money rather to make AUI-S saving some money. What I am trying to say is this AUI-S should give its students part time jobs for about four or five hours a day. This is good for both sides and helps AUI-S to accomplish its goals, and I am about to explain how. First, AUI-S does not need to pay them good amount of money because students aren’t looking for that much as long as their salaries provide their living expenses, they would be grateful. AUI-S can pay one salary of a current employee to three or four part time jobs. This benefits AUI-S financially, particularly in a time like now when AUI-S is in a desperate need for money. Those jobs will create a conducive atmosphere for students to gain experience and skills while they are in college. Since it is very hard to get internships in Iraqi, these part time jobs will grant students a chance to prepare themselves for the society. I believe this idea fits the AUI-S aims because I believe the success of AUI-S relies on how successful its students would be after the graduation. We might ask ourselves why is Harvard University is so famous, I guess one of the reasons is because several presidents of the US were from the Harvard. AUI-S will not just send out well taught leaders but also experienced leaders. I strongly hope that AUI-S’s key figures would take my concern into account if they thought it would serve the reputation and the interests of this university.

Why am I doing this ?
My love and support to AUI-S derives me to raise concerns over things that are going on at the campus. My criticism and disagreements does not mean I hate AUI-S but it shows that I pay a great tribute to this institution. My love to AUI-S bears a great resemblance to the love of a mother to her lost child otherwise I wouldn’t have devoted my time to write this piece of writing. We as students have the sense that our thoughts can help shape the direction of this university, and writing in this blog gives us opportunity to hold AUI-S accountable when it is about missing the boat by not following the path to reach the its potentials. When I see something useful to AUI-S, I can’t bite my tongue and site on the sideline but to speak out. Since we all students and AUI-S are in the same boat, let’s together transfer AUI-S from the state of obscurity to stardom by telling what we think about things because two heads are better than one.


*Pola Kamal is an International Studies and Political Science Freshman at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani.

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2 Comments: on "Financial Aid System Needs Radical Reform"

Anonymous said...

HHHHHHH PoLa Gian are u sleeping in the wheels? How can u suggest things to Americans? For the next time, Be sure that nothing is ganna work with their ideas except for what they believe in!

Anonymous said...

Polla you have such great ideas to suggest what needs to be done for the sake of this mere academic institution in Iraq, AUI-S. However, I have some concerns over your article.

First, you say, “The simplicity of the jobs themselves and the ways work study students are treated raises doubt about the results.” What do you mean by that? Kaka polla, let me ask you a very undemanding question. Have you ever worked as a work-study student at AUI-S? If so, you have experienced the works and have enough evidence to prove that the works are so easy. If not, how can you talk over and criticize a topic you have never experienced? You need to come and start working so that to see the muchness of effort it takes to work in some positions! Some of the positions are extremely frustrated..!

Second, you say, “My concern is this feeling of irresponsibility that students are getting used to now and which will prompt them to grow a negative attitude of not getting things done down the line when they become leaders in society.” Kaka Polla how do you know work-study students are irresponsible? All of them? Have you been working and experiencing that? Of course, not. So, how can you give the right to yourself to judge the whole work-study students the same? You MUST NOT.

The last one is that when you say, “What I am trying to say is this AUI-S should give its students part time jobs for about four or five hours a day.” I believe it is such a brilliant idea so that to make students feel more confident and have less self-pity. Also, it can help AUI-S to keep some money that might be spend for hiring some employees who do not speak English well..!

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