A $15,000 Dream

Everyone has a dream. Seemingly large or small, realistic or unrealistic, every single person with breath in his or her lungs has a dream.

To go to space, to run a 5k, to write a novel, to fly a plane, to own a home, to be a CEO, to make above minimum wage, to get married, to have kids, to be happy.

Everyone has a dream.

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Sagar Patagundi’s dream is to walk at his college graduation.

Sagar is an Indian immigrant, brought to the U.S. by his family when he was only eleven years old. By 2006, Sagar’s father was barred from returning to the U.S. after his work permit was rejected three times. Six years later, in 2011, Sagar and his brothers watched as their mother returned to India to care for their father.

Pictured: Sagar Patagundi

Sagar graduated high school with an impressive 3.8 GPA, but was ineligible for any college scholarships or financial aid because he is not a citizen. After raising $12,000 he began his college career at Eastern Kentucky University, where he continued to work night shifts to pay the bills. When the Dream ACT failed to pass Congress in 2010, Sagar relocated to Louisville, Kentucky in hopes of better opportunities in a bigger city. The Dream ACT would have “granted a reprieve from deportation to unauthorized immigrants who are under the age of 31; entered the United States before age 16; have lived continuously in the country for at least five years; have not been convicted of a felony, a “significant” misdemeanor, or three other misdemeanors; and are currently in school, graduated from high school, earned a GED, or served in the military.” (http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/issues/DREAM-Act)

In 2011, he enrolled at the University of Louisville and co-founded F.I.R.E. (Fighting for Immigrant Rights & Equality). Things started looking up for Sagar the next year, 2012, when undocumented youths received temporary aid through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This allowed for Sagar to begin work at UPS. UPS is a popular employment option for many University of Louisville students as they pay for full time student tuition plus hourly pay. Employed students work night shifts Monday through Friday for approximately 20-25 hours a week. It’s not an easy job to say the least, but it pays for school.

After two semesters of work, Sagar was informed that UPS would not be paying his tuition. Why? If you’ll remember, Sagar is not eligible for financial aid (FAFSA) because he is not a citizen. Without qualifying for FAFSA, UPS will not pay tuition for student employees. Unfortunately, no one told Sagar that until he was one semester shy of graduation.

Now, Sagar is 9 weeks away from graduation. 9 weeks away from making his dream come true. But with each passing day that dream is slipping further and further away. With UPS withholding student worker tuition payments, Sagar owes the University of Louisville $15,000. If he cannot find a way to pay this money, his account with UofL will be frozen and his degree withheld.

Please help.

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Sagar has created a fundraising page, which you can visit here: http://www.gofundme.com/e6jqy8. As a college student myself, I am completely broke. I live month to month on my minimum wage paycheck. But, I pledge to make a $5 donation to Sagar’s dream. As author Max Lucado said, “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

I urge you to do something.

This isn’t about your personal stance on legal or illegal immigrants in the United States, it’s about doing something to make one young man’s dream come true. After all, we are all citizens of the world. And we all have a dream.

A Nightmare for Louisville Students

At 4:07am an anonymous post went up on 4chan, a social media site, stating that the poster was going to “shoot up” Miller Hall at the University of Louisville in a mere 6 hours, at 10am today, Wednesday October 22, 2014. The scariest part of this threat is that the university student population was not made aware of the danger until 11:54am; hours after local news stations had already posted, shared, and reported stories.

Here you can see the post made to 4chan

The University of Louisville seriously dropped the ball on this one. But is it really a big deal? After all, nobody was hurt and the anonymous poster was arrested. Never the less, it is a huge deal. The decision by university officials not to inform students of the impending threat to their lives is not only unbelievable, but a gross injustice of power. Those who most needed to know this information, the students, were left completely in the dark. Many students unknowingly walked around, near, and through Miller Hall during the hours between the post and 10am. Further, Miller Hall is located adjacent to the Student Activities Center, one of the most highly trafficked areas on campus. In fact, many Louisville students were only made aware of the shooting threat via twitter. Most alarming still is that the poster specified the exact type of weapon he would use, a Mossberg firearm.

The tweet from Tim Elliot, made at 9:03am was the first notice many received.

The University’s email attempt at notifying the students of this threat was received by many as a joke. By the time the email was sent, at 11:54am, numerous news stations, facebook statuses, and tweets had told the general population everything they already needed to know. For many, the final straw in this whole mess came from University of Louisville Spokesperson Mark Hebert’s statement to the press, “I think the message to everybody — including our students — is, your words have consequences.” Lives were at risk. My life, my peers lives, my professors lives. We, as people, are not a message about the consequences of your words. This statement demonstrates the utter disregard for the human life and is an embarrassment to the university.

This screenshot of the email displays the 11:54am timestamp.

“This is completely unacceptable. We should have been warned. We should have gotten an email not to come to campus or we should have been on lockdown. But to wait three hours before they told us anything is disgusting.” -Louisville Senior, Bri Hyman

The anonymous poster was arrested and taken into custody for terroristic threatening before 10am. He has since been identified as Charles Edward Robb, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Louisville. Robb is a resident of Miller Hall, the all freshmen dorm he made the threats against, and a recent graduate of Eastern High School here in Louisville, Kentucky.

LMPD Mugshot of Charles Robb

Here are the facts:

4:07am: the post was made to 4chan

shortly before 8am: university officials received tip of the post

approximately 8am: police arrived at the Belknap campus

8:30am: Charles Robb is arrested and taken into custody for questioning

9:03am: tweet from WLKY’s Tim Elliott is made, the first notice for UofL students

9:10am: the first story of the threat made it’s way online via WDRB, you can find the whole story at   www.wdrb.com/story/26855927/student-arrested-after-threat-allegedly-made-against-u-of-ls-miller-hall  

11:54am: email sent to all students from Provost Willihnganz, the first university   sanctioned notice to students