In just three years, the number of students on welfare—most of them mothers—has dropped to less than 10,000, down from 28,000. Most believe Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's Workfare program is the cause. Below are a dozen profiles of women who managed to stay in school and 10 stories about related issues.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

	The campus Welfare Rights Initiative continues to lobby for a change in the state law to assist students on welfare. By Suk Yee Ng
	``Why Americans Hate Welfare, '' a recent book by Yale professor Martin Gilen accuses the media with stereotyping blacks as lazy and unmotivated recipients of welfare. He argues that the media's misrepresentation of the poverty-stricken has convinced the American public that most welfare recipients are part of a new class category: the "undeserving poor." By Tammi McElroy.
	New York State law recognizes that domestic violence keeps women poor and that it may be difficult for victims of the violence to meet the welfare program's work and time limit requirements. However, few battered women actually benefit from this provision. By Go Urata
	Somewhere on the third floor of the New York State Department of Social Services, a hearing is about to take place. The room is small, approximately 6 feet in all directions. Michelle Rivera enters this dark musty place, trembling. With her younger child on her hip and a green file folder under her arm, she pushes the stroller ahead of her into the room. By Tracy Peterson
	A state court judge ruled in April that welfare officials must individually assess public assistance recipients before placing them in Workfare assignments. Ruling could affect 200,000 single parents who are required to participate in the Workfare program. By Robin Riscica
	The campus Welfare Rights Initiative is part of a nationwide movement to change the restrictive 1996 law that effectively bars women on welfare from pursuing higher education. By Matthew Grace
	Workfare participants are beginning to protest for basic labor rights. "We want to be in unions,'' said Vondora Jordan, cochair of Workfairness, an organization representing more than 5,000 of Workfarers. By Kathy Egorova
	Many CUNY welfare moms are in a bind. The demand for quality, affordable child care exceeds the availability. Their hectic schedules compound the problem. By Jullisa Nixon
	Long lines plague the financial aid office on any given day during the first few weeks of the semester. Students, including those on public assistance, with all kinds of questions and financial woes, stand and wait their turn. By Janice Lewis
	Six specialists on welfare were asked to speak at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York to answer a lingering question: Is Workfare working? By Jacky Chapa

A special thanks to Beatrice Lopez and Dilonna C. Lewis, Welfare Rights Initiative staff members for their uncomplaining assistance in seeing this project through to the end.