“I’m running a personal deficit,” Ramirez said. “The school is lucky they’re getting anything at all.”
Photo by Jack Yang
Local student Abby Ramirez recently exposed a loophole in the UC tuition collection process after having paid only $1,400 for Winter Quarter 2021 tuition. Ramirez claimed she did not owe any more money to the school because she paid the remaining $13,015 in “earlier quarters.”
Ramirez says she took inspiration from the newly-inaugurated Biden administration’s plan of giving $1,400 COVID stimulus checks to supplement the previous $600 given last year. Taking a page from President Biden, who claimed he was “finishing the job of delivering $2,000 in direct relief to the hardest-hit Americans,” Ramirez tweeted: “Finishing the job of delivering $14,415 to hit-with-vast-amounts-of-savings Americans,” addressing her peers questioning her conviction to her payment plan. Ramirez’s post has received 1,000 retweets so far, including a retweet from a verified US government Twitter account that wrote: “The Biden-Harris administration will represent all Americans, from the students working hard to pay off their student loan debt to the unemployed adults who still have student loan debt. This is young leadership in action!”
Ramirez, a fourth-year student, says she plans to continue this payment plan through her graduation in Spring 2021. “I don’t see why I need to pay $14,415 just to not attend Zoom lectures. I’ve given them $14,415 multiple times before, and based on the stimulus checks, that kind of covers things! Actually, based on the stimulus checks, I don’t know if I’m really expected to pay at all. I haven’t actually paid for spring quarter yet, but I don’t really know if they noticed. I haven’t checked my email since November. I don’t know why they need more money from me for anyways. Does the University of California really deserve this money more than me? Are they really the most needy entity this cash could benefit right now? I mean, my history professor just started a GoFundMe for groceries.”
Ramirez’s roommates are less supportive of her payment plan. “Abby tried to pull this shit on us, too,” said roommate Celina Kazaar. “I got an email from our landlord saying we still had $600 due, even though Serena and I definitely paid our share.” Ramirez’s other roommate Serena Jaha commented, “I’m just concerned for her at this point. Her door is always closed now, so I never get to see her. She never responds when I try to have a conversation with her. ‘Abby, how are you doing?’ ‘Abby, where is our rent money?’ ‘Abby, having you been playing iCarly at max volume for 10 hours straight on purpose?’ Absurd. I never get a response. She even has a mini-fridge now, so I just see her when she brings in her mail and stuff. She gets a lot of packages from clothing websites for someone who’s broke.” Ramirez was last seen perusing a Trader Joe’s wearing an exact replica of Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfit.
Dan Kaliblotzky is a fourth-year at UCSD. He aspires to find a career in soulful heavy metal Phineas and Ferb covers.