If you know anything about them, you won’t be surprised that the students at Oberlin college are involved in the Wall Street occupy. The students’ comments were somewhat ho-hum. They express frustration at people taking advantage of free food, and frustrated at being stereotyped as an extreme liberal for their participation.
Here’s an interesting comment from a reader of the same article, “…I love those that take on over $100 grand in student loan debt because they want to work at a non-profit and complain they can't find a job that pays enough for them to repay their loans.”
Students can now protest without having to make the trip to the protest. Over 150 institutions have staged protests, and an online protest for professors is now available here. The protest, which as of this writing has almost 2,000 signatures (it’s goal is 1,000,000) reads:
“We, the undersigned college and university professors, stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movements in New York City, around the country, and around the world. We do so in the knowledge that the dramatic increases in poverty, joblessness and economic insecurity in our society are directly related to the extraordinary rise in inequality, particularly the wealth captured by the 1% of our population, which has deeply corrupted our political system. We stand united with the 99% to take back our economy and government from the 1%.”
The faculty have conveniently forgotten to address one of the occupy-ers main concerns: student debt.
I’m happy that students have found a meaningful way for them to make their voice heard. I’m also curious about the educational and developmental responsibility of administrators for our students. For students at Oberlin, tuition is $42,842, not including room, board, or books. I’m not saying everyone should have to go to a community college, but you sound a bit...what’s the word…spoiled, privileged, hypocritical… if you complain about student loan debt if you attend Oberlin.
Is there greed in Wall Street? I certainly think so. Is there greed on college campuses? Almost certainly. What is our ethical responsibility as administrators for what students we recruit to our campuses? Should we be recruiting students to be music teachers who will leave our campuses with tens of thousands of dollars in debt? How popular will you be in the admissions office if you work with a student to show them they actually can’t afford to go your school? What’s the responsibility of administrators who set goals for “another record freshmen enrollment!” I understand it’s not a fun conversation, but maybe we need to have an honest chat with students about how much debt they are incurring and how likely it is they will be able to pay it off.
Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. Education is an investment, so for that reason I think it often falls into a different category than credit card debt. Getting a degree isn’t the same kind of commodity as a TV. But, maybe we can still learn a lesson from Saturday Night Live – don’t buy stuff you cannot afford.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff
Beau, I appreciate you bringing up the question of our responsibility as administrators to address student loan debt with students in relation to the degree they seek. Even though the student loans accrued at my campus, a community college, will not reach the astronomical heights of university debt, the potential for earning a decent wage with a two year degree is highly improbable for the most part. I rarely discuss earning potential in relation to the academic goals of my advisee's unless they bring it up. I am far more focused on the fact that they are in college and regardless of their ultimate goal or the earning potential of their goal, I approach it from the standpoint that being in college and acquiring an education is better than the alternative despite the debt accumulated. But, the points you made in your post has made me consider and evaluate my responsibility to my students. Am I doing them a disservice with my “Pollyanna” attitude of toasting the fact that they are in college in spite of the odds against the majority of them? Perhaps I need to pepper the celebration with the reality of what awaits them or at least start planting the seeds of the financial reality that may await them. Although students are required to complete the financial aid counseling in order to accept their loans and part of that process is anticipating what they will need to earn in order to manage their student debt, I suspect the majority of students just go through the motions of the tutorial without really processing what it really means to them.
ReplyDeleteBeau-
ReplyDeleteYou are saying that Oberlin (or other expensive college) students are spoiled and hypocritical if they "complain about student loan debt". You also mention that the Oberlin protest does not include the element that many others do- namely complaints about student loan debt.
My perspective? Regardless of someone's personal financial situation, or choice of college, they can take a stance on an important issue without that inherently making them a hypocrite. One of my friends shared the following with me: http://westandwiththe99percent.tumblr.com/ (she's on there-- a 1%er, standing with the 99%).
Beau, thank you for your post. I have to agree with Braelin on this one. I do not believe that it is hypocritical for students to protest about student loans just because they are attending an expensive college. While there are more affordable options out there, should low-income students be forced into these colleges? Would this not lead to a greater division in social class because only rich people can afford the elite colleges (promising higher paying jobs when they are done) and low income students are forced into community colleges or state schools?
ReplyDeleteI think it is time for government to look at student loan debt and the interest rates they are charging students (interest rates are set by congress). Let's fix the real problem. Yes, students do need to be educated about the type of income they will earn once they are done with college. Yes, students need to take more responsibly with their debt. However, we still need social workers, teachers, non-profit staff, and student affairs staff. Loans may be the only way folks who want to go into these professions can make it.
Baelin - well said. This is something I had overlooked. Although a student may not be speaking for themselves, they may be standing up for others who have no choice to be stuck with debt. I appreciate you sharing this perspective.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Lori, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the interest rate. Let's get this under control, really, without band-aids (as someone else in a previous post said).
As a former college counselor at a small college preparatory high school that served a very diverse population including economically disadvantaged families, I think Beau raises a very legitimate question with respect to whether folks: Should students and their families be focusing on and enrolling into higher cost institutions when cheaper ones are available (make no mistake, such a decision involves the entire family's finances more than perhaps it ever has)?
ReplyDeleteThis is-like many of the issues we have to grapple with in this class-very multi-faceted. First of all, Americans value and love personal choice and freedom more than perhaps any other society in history. It seems to be imbedded in our sociocultural DNA. So discouraging the full menu of college choice in favor of pragmatic financial logic runs counter to that powerful cultural ethos and will therefore encounter ingrained opposition, however well-intended, it seems to me.
Second, as a college counselor who has helped many a student identify affordable college scenarios among their preferred options, I know that very few students (especially minority and economically disadvantaged students) pay full 'sticker price' at expensive private colleges, who often in much better financial shape with deeper financial pockets to draw from than the publics. If a student and their families really work the application system to their full benefit, private college can actually be more inexpensive than many publics.
That all being said, many families -especially minority families of Hispanic and African American backgrounds- simply cannot afford college without maxing out student loans. Consider from some of the most recent available data (see: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2069/housing-bubble-subprime-mortgages-hispanics-blacks-household-wealth-disparity ) that the average Asian-American household earns about $55K, the average White about 47K, the average Hispanic 33K and the average African American 30K. Then consider further the incredible average household wealth gap between racial groupings in 2009 (after the Great Recession kicked in): $113K for white households, about $6k for Hispanic, and about $5k for African American (wealth being essentially defined as potentially income-producing assets like housing equity, savings, and stock holdings). When you look at numbers like that, you realize that the average low income student (regardless of color) has got to likely borrow to afford the ever-escalating costs of higher education, particularly when considering that this is perhaps the worst job market for 16-24 year olds since the Great Depression (see: http://www.epi.org/publication/bp306-class-of-2011/). With numbers like these, is it any wonder that student loan defaults are at an all-time high?
Answers? Not easy to ascertain, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sponsored a good deal of research on how to make affordable and successful college more of a reality (for example, see: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Documents/5_Years_WSA.pdf ).
Beau - as Janet said, I really appreciate you bringing up the responsibility of the student affairs practitioner. I also appreciate the viewpoint from those of you who said these students may not be hypocrites; they're just voicing an opinion for something they believe in. I was on Beau's hypocrisy bandwagon before reading the other comments. :)
ReplyDeleteIn another blog topic, I had posted that I believe students have a responsibility to look at the debt their accruing in a realistic fashion. While I do still believe the student is (and will/should be) accountable for this, the role of the admissions counselor is a good one.
Even at UNC, a reasonably priced (compared to other state institutions in Colorado) public institution, what actions are we taking to make sure students don't get themselves into a situation they cannot afford post-college? No doubt finances are on the top of most families' radar but as professionals in admissions, housing and financial aid are we truly taking the family's circumstances into consideration when recruiting a student? And I ask this question as an employee of one of those offices at a public institution. Who knows what is being considered at institutions where tuition is a lot higher.
While it is easy to pin the responsibility on the student and their family, I appreciate your insight into what colleges and their staff may be doing (or not doing) to help the cause.