From the news and market tickers, one is led to believe the financial downturn is affecting not only Wall Street, but Main Street, College Street, Thayer Street and every other street. But for Brown students studying abroad in foreign countries or away in other parts of the United States, it is harder to notice that much of the world is frantic.
Because Brown feeds many of its graduates into the financial sector, students seem to be especially aware that the crisis won't only affect Wall Street, but also College Street. But among the sizable number of students studying abroad, many cannot help but feel disconnected.
"I feel very removed from it actually," said Lauren Santiago '10, who is studying in Madrid this semester. "Even though it's a global crisis."
Meredith Curtis '10, who is studying abroad in Cuba this semester, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the state of the economy has not impacted her spending habits abroad. Nevertheless, she said that being away from home left her feeling like she was "outside looking in." She said she was thankful that government-sponsored newspapers, like the Granma, are covering the financial crisis - though the papers sometimes portray the economic developments as the "failures of capitalism."
Brown students studying in North Africa said they too feel isolated from events on Wall Street.
"Maybe the shock will hit me when I come back next semester," said Anna Newby '10, who is studying in Egypt. She said that financial news makes front page headlines most days of the week, but that while Egyptians "are definitely conscious" of the economic crisis, "it's very much a distant thing."
Elana Goldstein '10, who is studying abroad in Morocco while taking intensive Arabic classes, said that she has family in the financial industry and it has been stressful to keep up with their experiences via e-mail rather than in person.
Moroccans, Goldstein said, know that an economic crisis is "happening," but do not feel that it will affect them. She said that the economic reach of most Moroccans does not extend beyond the local marketplace, and that for people with such indirect ties to the global economy, the larger financial system does not seem relevant to their lives.
As for Goldstein, "everything is so cheap anyways that it hasn't really affected my spending habits," she said.
Brown students as a whole, conversely, have not been immune to Wall Street's troubles. In an interview with The Herald earlier this month, Senior Vice President for University Advancement Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA'71 estimated that as many as one in five Brown alums work in the financial industry, loosely defined.
Not surprisingly, New Yorkers are very aware of the economic situation, said Molly Jacobson '10, who is away taking classes and teaching social studies to seventh and eighth graders at a middle school in Queens, N.Y.
Jacobson said she recently asked her students what the best economy in the world was. Initially, she was met with silence, but the hesitant responses left her struck. "I don't know, China?" one student ventured. "We're in a crisis!" another exclaimed.
Most of her students come from working class backgrounds, Jacobson said, but the financial industry's troubles have already begun to affect the rest of the city, effectively the world's financial capital. New York had previously benefitted from "sort of a bubble" when Wall Street seemed to be thriving, despite signs of a downturn in the United States, she said. Now, for example, many private drivers have found themselves out of a job.
"The most interesting thing that I've noticed is the odd hours that I'd see people with briefcases on the subways," Jacobson said,adding that she has grown used to going out on Friday nights and sharing subway cars with men and women in suits "looking really morose."
Evan Pulvers '10.5, who is studying in Mississippi on the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, said Wall Street's troubles have yet to have an impact in Mississippi, the poorest state in the union. Nonetheless, students there are very aware of the economic situation, she said.
"It's going to be a problem for Tougaloo," which doesn't have the resources that Brown does, she said. But she said that she has yet to notice changes in the spending habits of Tougaloo students, noting that they do not have a lot of disposable income to begin with. She said many students have cars on campus financed with loans, and that as borrowing becomes more difficult, "a lot of cars are going to disappear."
Jared Williams, a sophomore at Tougaloo and a friend of Pulvers', said that while "maybe the muckety-mucks at corporations" are feeling the downturn already, "a lot of us do not have money tied up in stocks."
