BU sophomore Dev Blair creates hashtag campaign

Dev Blair is a current sophomore at Boston University in the College of Fine Arts who identifies “as black, queer, and non-binary,” and therefore goes by the gender neutral pronouns they, their, them. They are an acting major with a concentration in musical theater.

During the summer there was an unexpected yearly fee added to each level of the musical theater program in CFA. When Dev started this program at CFA it was free of charge. “I was just really concerned because this was something that I had not planned for, and this was an unanticipated cost that my family had not saved for.”

Ultimately this unexpected additional fee is similar to a textbook fee in other colleges at BU. In CFA, this fee would cover sheet music, some production costs and so on and so forth. “[The additional] fee makes sense to me. I never want people to think that I am mad about these new upcoming fees. My frustration is with the fact that it’s something that I can’t cope with immediately, but I am expected to. That’s what I wanted to talk about with my hashtag #poorataprivateuniversity.”

Coming from a low-income family, Dev Blair was hesitant to vocalize about the financial situation. “When you are poor, you are socialized to feel a lot of shame about not having enough money or not coming from enough money, and the money that you have is supposed to say something about who you are. When in reality all money is just a line of numbers in your bank account.” From Dev Blair’s past year at BU, they have developed the vocabulary to speak out about what’s important to them.

Dev Blair represents a population of oppressed people throughout the country, and Dev believes that hashtags create a safe place where people can share their thoughts easily and quickly about issues that don’t often get heard. “The #BlackLivesMatter movement has completely changed how we’re talking about race relations in the United States. The Black Lives matter campaign has an incredible amount of power and impact throughout the world. So, I wanted to do something similar but on a smaller scale [with my own hashtag] #poorataprivateuniveristy.”

There have been hashtags in the past that stereotypically speak for the typical “broke college kid” but Dev didn’t want the hashtag campaign to be trendy or #soorelatable. “I wanted to create a place where people could really talk about their problems, that they have experienced, and how to deal with them.”

#PoorAtAPrivateUniveristy

At first, the hashtag was just exposed to people within Dev Blair’s social sphere. It was contained to just their Facebook friends and family. When Dev started to use the hashtag some people pointed out that this hashtag was only in reference to poor students at private universities and therefore wasn’t inclusive of students financial hardships at public universities.

“I created the hashtag to talk about my experience. I didn’t want to speak about students at public universities because I didn’t have the knowledge to speak on their behalf.” Dev then used the hashtag on their Twitter and it started to trend within their followers.

The first tweet with the #poorataprivateuniversity

“I wanted people at BU to see the use of the hashtag. So, that’s when I went to the official BU class of 2019’s page to let my peers know of my campaign and my group.” Dev received an overwhelming amount of positive responses to the hashtag. Most people were appreciative because this hashtag brought attention to a conversation that people aren’t having. Some even personally reached out to Dev, because they just wanted to share their experience with someone who understood and cared.

BU has a particular approach to compromise with low-income students, which is a very individualized process. Dev thinks that approach is great but, there is no real sense of community for low-income students. “The group that I created is a safe place community for students to feel less isolated. I think it is an easy way to show the administrative level that we are supported. Due to how BU caters to low-income students it makes them feel like no one really cares about your needs. So, I genuinely think it’s more beneficial to have a larger community to discuss the needs of low-income students such as talks, or discussions, simple ways to save, or how to set a budget. That’s all stuff that I think BU could do to help us all.”

The group has created a place for students to discuss their situations, a place for advice and resources such as scholarship funds to a group of students who need it.

Dev Blair is a blogger, vlogger, activist and theater artist. There is an open page for followers to ask questions about identity such as race, gender or sexuality. KEEP SLAYIN’ DEV BLAIR!

@devblairyt (Facebook)

@devblairyt (blog)