This article is not intended to stir controversy but bring the deep underlying truth about UMass Amherst to light. Every semester tuition rises and housing increasingly becomes more expensive. The University stays aware of this issue but continues to respond with only half-measured solutions. The University’s systems are meant to support students are either unfunded, inaccessible, or just straight up broken. The author of this article resonates with this issue personally and struggles to scrap enough money together for next semester. The continuous skyrocketing of cost to attend the school leaves students with an impossible choice but to pay more in order to continue attending. Students are barely getting by with housing not being affordable and financial aid not giving enough. Students are skipping meals, rationing the little food they are given weekly. Admin announced future plans to open a food pantry in the fall of 2025. Another thing students have to worry about is financial penalties. This means if you miss one tuition payment your entire education is put on hold, “if you can’t pay, you can’t stay”. People outside this struggle don’t quite understand what it feels like to have your school tell you that your intelligence and eagerness to learn doesn’t matter, instead your future is dependent on whether you can come up with enough money in such little time to pay your bills. Many students are forced to balance jobs along with classes due to this problem. The university will allow you to fall and no one is doing anything to help or fix this. If enough students come together to protest, a change will emerge.

On March 1st, UMass’ Men’s Lacrosse brings victory home with a 10-9 final score. This is now the UMass’ Minutemen 4th consecutive win. During the first game for the Gorillas they did a good job staying in the lead until UMass made a comeback with only 1:50 on the clock remaining. Junior, Aiden Drunsic operated a play that put Minutemen in the lead by dishing a pass to Trace Hogan who then scored the winning goal. There was a pushing penalty on Brady Hoff giving Albany an opportunity to tie the game but they fumbled. Unbeaten Freshman goalie, Owen Salanger had made a critical stop for Mass on Saturday. Salanger is currently 5th in the nation in goals against average. He finished the game against the Great Dances with 13 saved for the third time this season. Things weren’t looking to hot for Minutemen when Albany had the first 3 goals of the game. Towards the end of the first quarter, Zach Auble came down rushing down the field passing to Hogan who scored UMss its first goal of the game. Minutemen’s star players of the game, Matthew Cargiulo, Robbie Granada, Charles Kurtz, John Krisch, and Trace Hogan all put in the work to bring their school to victory. On March 8th, UMass will return to the field to go head to head with Vermont.