Pace University students saw something unusual last Tuesday in Kessel Student Center: a boy with tattered clothes sitting on the floor, surrounded by cardboard, with a sign that read “No job, no home, please help. God bless you.”

The act was part a social experiment by the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity meant to raise awareness about homeless students on college campuses.

PLP Vice President Edwin Rodriguez sat on top of a cardboard box next to a table where people could receive information about the event. As people walked past he would call out to them “I’m hungry. Do you have any spare change?” to get their attention. The cardboard box had his textbooks tucked in a corner behind him, broken down boxes used to form a shelter as he laid upon the cardboard box with newspaper holding a sign asking for money.

To make this more interesting, there was also an agitator who was yelling at the homeless student.

As people would stop to see what Rodriguez was saying or to donate money a member of the fraternity would walk over to them encouraging them to “keep walking, ignore him.”

Eventually Rodriguez switched roles with PLP President Jonathan Vargas and the event’s intensity increased. People began kicking Vargas’s change cup, spilling money across the floor and yell rude comments like “you’re a disgrace! Go get a job!”

Still, responses from students and faculty varied.

Some ignored it all, some told the student that they didn’t have any money, some gave money, and some bought the student food.

“I didn’t give any money because I feel that most people who ask for money are just scammers,” student Niya Harry said.

This was the popular answer given when students were asked why they did not give money. Others gave advice rather than money, while some students felt they did not want to give money in fear a person would just use it to support bad habits.

Alex Coma, a friend of the members of the fraternity, assisted by recording the actions or reactions of passersby. According to the recorded data, out of the 522 people that witnessed the event, 32 people offered their school I.D. for food, 360 people offered nothing, 18 people were persuaded away from donating, ¬¬two people defended the homeless person, eight people said “get a job”, seven people gave food, and Caitlyn Kelly, Program Coordinator Center for Community Action and Research at Dyson College, offered her phone so Vargas could “call services to get him help.”

“It’s the right thing to do. Change isn’t going to make or break me, food isn’t going to make or break me but it will definitely make a difference to him,” Catering Director Alfred Catella said after giving Vargas money and food.

Onlookers were directed to the information table and thanked for stopping regardless of whether or not they donated. Many were curious to know where the donated money was going and were happy to find out it would be going to a food bank in the town of Pleasantville. However, those who gave dollar bills were offered their money back. Some people refused to accept the return of their money because they wanted it be donated to the food bank as well.

“To me this is a stereotype of what homeless people look like. There are homeless students on campus that would never tell you they’re homeless and you would never know from looking at them,” Pace Challenge to Achieve advisor Lisa Rader said.

Rodriguez said $71 in donations was raised and that next semester Pi Lambda Phi planned on having a Life in a Box 2.0 event. They want to rent a bus and make food for the homeless in New York City.