Students face an increase in financial pressure as the cost of education continues to rise. ISTOCK.COM / COURTESY
Misha Jabal-Abadi, Staff Writer
Whether someone is an undergraduate or a graduate student, a common issue both share is the reality of student debt. Most who choose to get a college education will leave with debt that can potentially take years to pay off. Student debt can be caused by a number of factors, including rising tuition, housing costs, class materials and more.
Allyson Haskins, a junior marketing and communication double major as well as the vice president of student government, expressed that one of the biggest factors she’s noticed contributing to debt amongst her peers is the rising cost of housing and meal plans. She mentioned how this issue is leading more students to commute in hopes of reducing their debt.
“The cost of housing and meal plans is continuously going up,” Haskins said. “It’s cheaper to live off campus now, making our commuter numbers go up significantly.”
For active college students, student debt can significantly affect their day-to-day lives. Melinda Wilson, Ph.D, the director of the Center for Academic Success (CAS), shared that student debt is a contributor to the stress students feel every day. She emphasized that due to this debt, many students may not be able to make the choices they would like to, including their desired job, as they may lean toward careers that will allow them to pay their debt off while earning a manageable income.
“I think it [student debt] impacts how able they [students] feel to kind of live life the way they’d like to,” Wilson said.
Haskins added onto this point, and described how this issue is impacting her on a personal level.
“As someone who pays for everything myself and incurs student debt, it definitely affects things I’m able to do and makes me want to enter a higher paying field,” Haskins said.
Wilson shared familiar concerns with this issue, as she mentioned there are similar patterns between her time as a student and the students she currently meets with. She mentioned how as a former student, every time she had to spend money on anything school-related, she had to consider the effects it could have in her future.
“When I was a student myself, student debt was something that weighed heavily on my mind every time I took out that credit card … ‘how is this going to impact what I’m able to kind of do in the coming weeks’,” Wilson said.
While students are struggling, Manhattan University is actively looking for ways to help with the financial burden of student debt. The Jasper Guarantee was announced earlier this October, and will lock students’ tuition for the four years they attend MU.
Michael Mulrooney, the executive director of Jasper Central, spoke more about the Jasper Guarantee as well as how the university is working alongside donors and other outside resources to help in any way they can.
“We’re at lock tuition,” Mulrooney said. “With that in mind, to be able to control costs and have a limit for students coming in, we’ve also tried to increase scholarship dollars by working with some generous donors as well as university funding to kind of mitigate that as well, but it impacts everybody’s decision a little bit differently.”
MU has also implemented income-share agreements (ISA), which look at a student’s current income, and plan a payment course that works better for them according to that income. Mulrooney further explained what goes into this process, and how it works.
“How income-share agreement works is that it looks at your income at the time, and you pay a percentage of that as your income increases and you pay back a little bit more toward the principal of your loan that you would have borrowed,” Mulrooney said. “And those are part of your exit loan strategies.”
Beyond ISAs and locked tuition, there are several other resources students can turn toward to help them with their financial situations. Currently, many students are using Sallie Mae scholarship awards, as well as applying to other outside scholarships they’re eligible for.
“I think a lot of students use Sallie Mae or outside scholarships,” Haskins said. “The university has pretty good financial aid, but it’s definitely decreased in recent years, making students struggle more – but the advisors are open for discussion and there to help.”