Harvard University, the wealthiest university in the world, is recommending that some of its students apply to receive federal food stamp benefits.
"Did you know that Grad Students may qualify to receive assistance paying for food & groceries?" the Harvard University Health Services advertised on a flyer for an event earlier this year.
The school has an endowment of $53 billion, the largest economic endowment in the world. The university's advice that graduate students seek food stamps comes as graduate students have demanded Harvard increase their $40,000 yearly wage. The Harvard Graduate Students Union, which has gone on strike over the pay, wants a $20,000 increase to the wage.
The school receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year from the federal government, much of it for research.
The school is facing scrutiny in the wake of the Supreme Court's June decision ruling that affirmative action is unconstitutional. In the wake of the ruling, the school hinted it might focus on application essays to determine applicants' race and maintain its preferred racial makeup for the student body.
Harvard president Lawrence Bacow said the Court "ruled that colleges and universities may consider in admissions decisions ‘an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.’"