14 minute read
News
AN EARLY FAREWELL
Graduating third-year telecommunications major with a concentration in digital video production Emily Moore poses for a portrait Dec. 2 in front of Schafer Tower. AMBER PIETZ, DN
Fall 2022 graduates talk about their time on campus and decision to graduate early. 404
Graduates share their experiences of receiving their diplomas early.
Hannah Amos, Madelyn Bracken
Associate News Editor, Reporter
Editor’s note: As Hannah Amos worked under Grace McCormick during her time as News Editor, current News Editor Kyle Smedley interviewed McCormick for this story.
With much of their college experience plagued by COVID-19 and further cut short by their decision to graduate in December, fall 2022 semester graduates have had a different college experience than most.
Emily Moore, third-year telecommunications major with a concentration in digital video production, said her early graduation comes down to her decision to not stay in Indiana post graduation to better serve her career.
“I felt that it was easier to move-in the beginning of a year versus in the middle of summer. It’s a very busy time,” Moore said. “I found it was easier to find jobs … in the earlier of the year, more like the January to February range.”
The job market was also a factor for Abigail Warren, fourth-year nursing major with a minor in psychology of human development.
“I feel like I have more job opportunities and that it’s going to be less exhausting,” Warren said. “I can push myself through the next two weeks because it’s my last finals week.”
When Charles Melton, December 2020 graduate, enrolled at Ball State, he made the decision to graduate early, mainly to help him financially. Though his mother was working at Ball State, which gave him a discount, Melton paid his way through college.
He ended up finishing school without needing to take out any loans.
Grace McCormick, May 2022 graduate, flew from the Cardinals nest within three years, also deciding to graduate early due to financial reasons.
Similar to Melton, McCormick decided two weeks into her first year at Ball State she wanted to graduate early. From there, she sat down and planned her schedule accordingly.
“I don’t think it would have worked if I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” McCormick said. “I’m pretty lucky to know that I’ve wanted to be a journalist, basically, since I was a teenager.”
McCormick felt she didn’t need to be at Ball State for four years, feeling ready for the next step in her career and life.
“I got what I came there for,” McCormick said. “I had leadership positions at The [Ball State] Daily News, on the speech team and had a little bit of a social life too. So, I don’t really know what would have been different, honestly, if I had stayed there all four. I was pleased with the experience.”
After Melton graduated, he took an “off year” where he worked in a factory in Muncie. He felt the job at the factory was a great opportunity.
“That year in the factory, working kind of [a] blue-collar style job is a huge learning experience,” Melton said. “That helps you know more about being a Muncie native, never [having] seen that side of Muncie and being a part of that and participating in learning about that was a great experience.”
At the time, he was only focused on gaining more money for financial stability, and the “off year” gave him time to focus on his media job applications much more than he felt staying in college would have.
Only having to focus on his factory job and doing a job search was much easier to juggle compared to having to do so while also in college, Melton said.
McCormick’s experience with the job search after graduating differs from Melton’s in that while Melton took an “off year,” McCormick felt the job search was “about the same” as other graduates.
Her job search lasted a few months after graduation. She applied for eight to 10 jobs and interviewed for around six.
She felt when it came to this job search, her graduating early wasn’t of much importance.
“Unless I brought it up, nobody cared that I graduated in three years,” McCormick said. “On my resume, it says that I have a degree … The only thing that anyone cared about was that I was qualified for the job. It didn’t matter if I did it in two, three, six years.”
However, she said she is thankful for the fact she graduated early because the position she has now at Richland Source wouldn’t have been open this upcoming spring.
Melton, however, views that employers do care about applicants who graduate early. He felt students who graduate early can be a deciding factor in getting a job because he thought it showed determination and passion.
For Warren, as she gets ready to leave the Cardinals behind, graduating early isn’t all positive. Technically, she is graduating late after taking a break before eventually going into Ball State’s nursing program. She explained a lack of solidarity due to not graduating with those she began her college career with.
“The kind of camaraderie that you have with the entire class that you started with? I don’t have that,” Warren said. “I don’t know half the people in my class.”
For both Warren and Moore, soon-to-be graduates, campus involvement helped them feel like they had a place at Ball State. For Warren, it was through Greek life.
“I think that the thing that’s been most impactful is Phi Mu,” Warren said. “I know that sounds silly, like ‘Sorority life, it’s where you’ll find your sisters,’ but I really did. These people are going to be at my wedding; they’re friends for life.”
Both were heavily involved in various organizations, a highlight for Moore being her involvement in the Frog Baby Film Festival.
Due to COVID-19, however, her experience with the group was limited, as was Warren’s time in Phi Mu. Enzo Lundy, urban and regional planning major, was impacted academically.
“There were times where I lacked a lot of motivation, especially since I was at home,” Lundy said. “Being on campus, seeing other students and students studying and just getting to interact face-to-face with my teachers made a huge difference in how I approach coursework.”
For Moore, this shortened time created a conflict when deciding to graduate early.
“There are people who go here … that I was in high school with and I’m still very close with to this day,” Moore said. “It was a hard decision knowing that I’m not going to be next to them [like] how we were in high school.”
That idea of fellowship and shared experience seems to be the X-factor — the downside for both fall graduates: the idea they won’t be next to the people they came here with. That kind of camaraderie is gone, and Moore, Lundy and Warren said they often feel less important than the “normal” spring semester graduates.
“We already feel like no one’s going to come and nobody cares that we’re graduating because a lot of it is girls and guys that are graduating late like me. Not a lot of people are graduating early,” Warren said.
Even the pinning ceremony for nursing majors has been moved from Emens Auditorium to Pruis Hall which Warren described as “putting lemon in the cut.”
Lundy is also slated to graduate at the end of the fall 2022 semester. He said he doesn’t necessarily feel overlooked but does feel an extra amount of pressure.
“There’s higher expectations for people who graduate early to stick to their word,” Lundy said.
Despite these complications, they have not changed their final verdict. The three will graduate Dec. 17 at 10 a.m. in Worthen Arena. Tickets are not required, according to Ball State’s website.
Contact Madelyn Bracken with comments via email at madelyn.bracken@bsu.edu. Contact Hannah Amos with comments at hannah.amos@ bsu.edu or on Twitter @Hannah_Amos_394.
Graduating
with Risk Ball State graduates discuss how infl ation is impacting their lives.
Lila Fierek
Copy Director
Glue-covered hands work away on a colorful project on construction paper. Small untied shoes pitter patter across the classroom. Markers and crayons roll onto the desks of each student.
As a fourth-year elementary education major at Ball State University, Margaret Stein is fi nally ready to graduate and start her career.
One of the basic building blocks of teaching is constructing your classroom, and while Stein is excited to begin right away, infl ation is adding to an already pressurized time.
It’s widely known teachers don’t make a lot of money, Stein said, and with everything getting more expensive, she’s scared.
According to the International Monetary Fund, infl ation measures the expense rate a set of goods has increased over a certain period of time. As of September, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, infl ation in most countries rose 10.5 percent in a year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in June, this was the largest increase of infl ation in 40 years, and at the time, it had only gone up by 9 percent. As of October, the infl ation percentage in the U.S. has decreased to 7.7 percent.
10 Consumer Price Index Percent Change (Midwest Region)
Erik Nesson, associate economics professor and department chair at Ball State, said infl ation isn’t always bad, and economists fi nd small amounts desirable for economic growth. Too much can hurt consumers though.
“It is really painful for people whose incomes cannot adjust along with the prices,” Nesson said. “So if prices go up by 5 percent, and your income goes up by 5 percent, then you’re at the same place where you started, but that is not how a lot of jobs work.”
According to Education Week, the National Education Association showed the average 2021-22 salary of a teacher increased 1.7 percent from last year, not enough to keep up with infl ation.
“Regardless of whether you buy a house … or to rent, that now costs a lot more than it did before,” Nesson said. “That also holds true for just the broader basket of goods that people have to buy. Food, energy, travel: all of those things are certainly more expensive.”
When the prices of necessary items start to increase but the amount of money one is able to spend stays the same, Nesson said a lot of people have to start making tough decisions on how much of their income they can spend.
“Rent as a whole is always something that I’m concerned about,” Stein said. “Overall, just paying bills and insurance and keeping track of it all is defi nitely concerning.”
Stein doesn’t get paid for her student teaching, but since she is also a full-time student, there isn’t a lot of time for anything else.
“Keeping up with bills can defi nitely be intimidating, but we’re making it work paycheck to paycheck, barely,” she said.
That’s a concern for some graduating seniors across the nation with infl ation rates on the rise.
Stein said she has donated plasma many times and picked up small jobs to save up and prepare for life after college.
“I think that the graduation overall rate of success is unique to this year because we’re coming towards this end of the [COVID-19] pandemic, and it’s truly not the end because we’re obviously still being impacted every day,” she said. “... Financially, it’s going to hit students really hard.”
Stein said Ball State has pushed out a couple grants to help students during the pandemic, but students still need more.
“I would say that Ball State defi nitely could have prepared me better,” she said. “I feel that they have done the very minimum, and that minimum level has prepared me to graduate and start, but once I’m about to start … there’s an intimidation factor there. You know, my confi dence isn’t as high.”
Stein said Ball State did what they could though.
Ball State has the Career Center to help students with career questions and needs. To aid students worried about fi nancial needs, Ball State also has the Basic Needs Hub, a resource that helps with wellness, food security, housing support and unaccompanied homeless and foster youth. Ball State has emergency grants for those who are struggling with expenses.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures prices in each region. CPI is the most widely used measure of infl ation in the U.S.
8
Percent change 6
4
2
0
-2 January 2020 July January 2021 All items All items (less food and energy)
One of Stein’s biggest fi nancial concerns is the cost of her classroom. She said it can cost a couple thousand dollars from her pocket.
“Ball State has charged a lot for tuition, and I’ve paid a lot in room and board and taken a lot that way,” Stein said. “... Now I’m expected to start up this additional funding that you didn’t really expect was going to happen.”
According to Adopt a Classroom, on average, it costs teachers $750 to buy their school supplies, with 30 percent of teachers spending over $1,000. This data is from July 2021 though, and in that year, the price of school supplies has increased by nearly 15 percent, according to the Associated Press.
“So with … infl ation increasing as much as it is, I’ve seen my pay rate stay at the exact same level, and things are only going up,” Stein said. “… It’s very intimidating, but at the same time, you know, I think it starts us off on a good foot to hopefully start seeing a pay raise for teachers.”
Nesson has a similar concern.
“At Ball State, our salaries go up, usually pretty slowly, so my raises have not kept up with infl ation,” he said. “Fortunately for us, we live very close to campus, so we don’t have to drive very much, but we’ve noticed the cost of a lot of our groceries is going up quite a bit … It’s a lot more expensive than it was before, so we defi nitely notice prices going up as I’m sure most consumers do as well.”
Ben Yoder, Ball State alumnus and music teacher for Hamilton Southeastern Schools, has also been affected by growing infl ation rates.
“I believe raising the federal minimum wage is something that should’ve been done a while ago, as it hasn’t been keeping up with rising costs of living for quite some time now,” he said. “Regardless of the level of infl ation we are dealing with, I think the minimum wage should keep up with the general cost of living, which it has not.”
Nesson said often when prices go up, consumers want higher wages, then this becomes a cycle called a “wage price spiral.” This back and forth can be bad for the economy and cause unemployment, which can then lead to an economic recession.
According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, a recession is “a sustained period of weak or negative growth in real GDP, or output, that is accompanied by a signifi cant rise in the unemployment rate.” Just after Yoder graduated, he went through the 2008 fi nancial crash. He said this caused a recession and led to a decline in revenue for both education and the state.
“If there’s a recession, then employment opportunities for students might not be as abundant as they were before, and that’s obviously a huge concern for people who are coming out of college and looking to fi nd a job,” Nesson said.
He said students should try to control the decisions they can right now by looking at starting salaries and employment prospects. For those who aren’t graduating soon, Nesson said it’s an important factor that should be considered when choosing a major.
Contact Lila Fierek with comments at lkfi erek@bsu.edu or on Twitter @fi erek_lila.
- ERIK NESSON, Professor of economics
loweryscandies.com 6255 W. Kilgore Ave (765) 288–7300 (765) 288–7300
SATISFY YOUR SWEET TOOTH.
GET A FREE CANDY BAR WITH YOUR BSU ID.
YEARLY INFLATION BY THE NUMBERS
12.1%
FOOD PRICES
Food at home rose 13.2% since October 2021, while prices for food away from home increased 10.0% over the same period.
16.2%
5.7%
ENERGY PRICES
Energy prices have risen since October 2021 mainly due to gasoline prices, which increased 20.1%.
HOUSING PRICES
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
