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friday Issue february 18, 2011 FRESNO STATE
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STUDENT LOANS: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW By Jessica Chamberlain The Collegian
As tuition and fees begin to increase for CSU’s and UC’s alike, students are turning to various ways of paying for their education. A s eve r y o t h e r o u t l e t i s exhausted in regard to financial aid with grants and scholarships from schools and the federal and state governments, it leaves only one option, and that is to take out a loan. According to research done by the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, 65.6 percent of four-year degree students graduated with some sort of student loan debt. The average amount of debt for undergraduate degree students for the years 2007-08, was $23,186 for graduating seniors. Among those students who applied for federal student aid of some sort, 86.3 percent took out a student loan that averaged an amount of $24,651 by the time they graduated. This means that only 14 percent of students that apply for financial aid receive enough support financially from family or from grants that they are able to avoid this situation. This is a problem, especially with the poor economy and 1,450 students that graduate from Fresno State not being able to find a good paying job, according to a previous article in The Collegian.
These statistics include Stafford, Perkins, state, college and private loans in the numbers. It is a scary thought to think of paying the loan back and how long it will take. According to colle gescholarships.org, the amount that a person will be paying back and the length of time depends upon the interest rate for the loan. Interest rates based on a national average are 6.8 percent for Stafford loans, Perkins loans are fixed at 5 percent, and Parent and Grad PLUS loans are at 8.5 percent and 7.9 percent for the federal direct loan program. For private student loans, it is decided by the bank that the money was borrowed from and can change at any time. If a student based on the national average, graduated with a debt of $23,186 and had an interest rate of 6.8 percent, the student will be paying an additional $1576.48 a year until the loan is paid off. According to Maria Her nandez, the financial aid director for Fresno State, last year Fresno State had 2,100 students graduating with student loan debt that needed to complete an exit interview. “Annually we have approximately 8,000-9,000 student borrowers, plus or minus,” she said. “Those students will all gradu-
$23,186
AVG. DEBT FOR GRADUATING SENIORS
SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922
Save Mart Center traffic fiasco By Dana Hull The Collegian
Illustration by Michael Uribes / The Collegian
ate or leave campus at some point and will therefore go into repayment.” There is some hope with changes in the Higher Education Access Act of 2007 that will affect interest rates for loans. For example, Stafford student loan interest rates are being reduced to 3.4
percent gradually between 2007-2012. But will this be enough? J u l i e t Wi l l i a m s o f t h e Associated Press reported that CSU Trustees voted to increase tuition this winter and spring each semester by 5 percent and another 10 percent next fall semester.
The Save Mart Center’s “Get Motivated” event caused some chaos for Fresno State students and staff. Heavy traffic caused delays for students getting to their classes, and even resulted in some classes being cancelled. T h e S ave M a r t C e n t e r issued a formal apology to students, faculty and staff. “Our goal is to bring a variety of events to the building and our community, but, in hindsight, this decision did not serve the best interests of our campus community ... which is our priority,” Debbie Adishian-Astone, associate vice president for Auxiliary Operations, said in the statement. “On behalf of the Association and the Save Mart Center, I apologize for the problems caused by today’s event and I want you to know that we will closely evaluate future non-University events of this size to be held on weekdays and during the University’s regular business hours.” In response to the traffic problems, the University Police Department sent several e-mails to students and staff war ning them of the congestion and suggesting areas to enter and exit campus that may not be so crowded. The university also relaxed parking in yellow parking lots and metered parking to aid students in the problem.
Global events foreign to some students
“We are ignorant because we live in a society where people are only concerned about what goes on in their lives and Although anti-government in their bubbles,” criminology protesting in Egypt has been major Kendra Chambers said. in the news for weeks, their “If a situation is not directly struggle might be recent news af fecting us then we have to some Fresno State students. no reason to take a personal “I honestly don’t even know interest in it.” what’s going on,” Karissa Fresno State jour nalism Warkentin, a public health professor Kelley McCoy conmajor, said. “I haven’t been ducted a survey in her global w at ch i n g o r re a d i n g t h e communication class about news.” students’ awareness of foreign Although certain students events. can admit to being unaware of “I asked students in my the events taking place across global communication class the world, it can be harder for how many of them paid attenthem to explain why. tion to foreign news — by By Ciara Norton The Collegian
reading newspapers, watching TV newscasts, going online, whatever,” McCoy said. “Very few raised their hands.” Social work major Lilliana Villalobos heard about the protests in Egypt through a friend before she saw them on the news or heard about them through other media. “For some reason our country is just not really interested in social involvement,” Villalobos said. “We are concentrating on our personal priorities rather than politics.” A recent survey conducted by the Pew Center for the People & the Press found that
52 percent of Americans have heard little or nothing regarding the anti-government protests taking place in Egypt. “Many Americans, because of the United States’ geographic isolation and economic military strength, are lulled into a false sense of security,” McCoy said. “There is also a certain arrogance, a sense of exceptionalism that I think shapes our perception of ourselves in regard to others.” The Pew survey showed that the American public’s news habits have been greatly changed by the Internet and 24-hour cable news.
“In the Middle East, people have no faith in the media,” Egyptian student in the U.S. Sherif Fouad said in an e-mail. “For example, the regular Egyptians do not make a judgment on a political matter before exploring as many resources as they can. They also are interested in listening to the enemy media. As the Egyptian masses have equal suspicion in both the national and unfriendly media, they analyze both equally based on history, personal knowledge, and well-respected figure’s views.” See GLOBE, Page 3