"The Real Ones": A Qualitative Analysis of Low-Income Student Dining Workers at An Elite University

Abstract

As elite universities increase efforts to provide access to low-income students, more attention is required to examine these students’ sense of belonging and inclusion on campuses that have been the historic prerogative of the wealthy. Focusing on Princeton University, I ask what happens to the supposed promise of equality when many low-income students are assigned to work as student servers in the dining hall. Through interviews with these students, I found that while student dining workers are made aware of class differences through the job, the overwhelming sentiment is of refuge and pride, not exclusion or disadvantage. Student workers reframe their identities, mindset, and lifestyle as more “real” and counter-cultural to aspects of campus culture from which they wish to distance themselves. In doing so, they are able to reconcile parts of their identity that were seemingly incompatible before to achieve a surprisingly robust sense of belonging despite sharp class difference.