3.1.12

Page 1

Thursday March 1, 2012 year: 132 No. 34

the student voice of

The Ohio State University

www.thelantern.com

thelantern Student loans next ‘debt bomb’?

sports

SARAH STEMEN Oller reporter stemen.66@osu.edu

Buzzer beater

5A

The OSU men’s basketball team won in the last few seconds against Northwestern, 75-73, Wednesday night.

Top 10 high debt states

Josh Tisonyai graduated from Ohio State last spring with a communication degree in hand, $26,000 in student loan debt and hope for the future. Even with a post-graduation job, Tisonyai lives at home, relies on his parents and struggles to make ends meet, a feat that would not be possible if he had to pay rent and other bills. Like Tisonyai, thousands of other college graduates in Ohio and nationwide are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for school long after classes have ended. One financial expert calls their collective financial burden a “debt bomb” that is waiting to explode. Although Tisonyai found a job upon graduating at WHIZ news in

State 1. New Hampshire 2. Maine 3. Iowa 4. Minnesota 5. Pennsylvania 6. Vermont 7. Ohio 8. Indiana 9. Rhode Island 10. New York

Average Debt ¹ $31,048 $29,983 $29,598 $29,058 $29,599 $28,391 $27,713 $27,001 $26,340 $26,271

Default Rate ² 4.4% 8.2% 8.0% 6.7% 5.7% 4.2% 8.2% 7.5% 5.2% 7.5%

¹ Average debt for the class of 2010 ² Default: to fail to meet financial obligations (in reference to paying back student loans). Data from 2009 fiscal year.

source: reporting KATIE HUSTON / Lantern designer Zanesville, Ohio, but he said he is still struggling to keep his head above water. “Financially, it’s awful because it’s my first job right outside of college, so it doesn’t pay a whole lot,” Tisonyai

said. “I’m looking into teaching to try to get some extra money right now.” Tisonyai said he is living at home with his parents and paying off student loans at a rate of about $350 per month.

“I have the luxury of living with my parents and having a support system,” he said. “If I didn’t have that, I’m not sure how I would get by. I feel for those people who are paying off their loans and have to pay other bills too.” Tisonyai is one of many OSU graduates who was forced to take out student loans to pay for their education. There are 8.2 percent of students in Ohio defaulting on their loans, according to fiscal year 2009 data from the U.S. Department of Education. Officials are predicting student loan debt to be at an all-time high nationally. Figures indicate students from Ohio in 2010 averaged $27,713 in student loan debt upon college graduation, which is the seventh highest amount in the nation according to the Project on Student Debt.

continued as Loans on 3A

Plans ‘in place’ to reduce OSU’s footprint

[ a+e ]

BRIN KERKHOFF Lantern reporter kerkhoff.2@osu.edu

1B

No bones about it

Some members of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are reuniting for a show scheduled Sunday at Newport Music Hall.

photos

Check out last 2 weeks in photos

4A

As one of the largest public universities in the country, Ohio State is taking steps to be a walking, environmentally consistent campus. At a Feb. 6 editorial board meeting, President E. Gordon Gee told The Lantern his goals are to develop a small footprint for the university and to have LEED-certified buildings. “Those (plans) are all very much in place,” Gee said in the meeting. Some student organizations are taking action to help with these green goals. Olga Ovchinnikova, president of the Students for a Sustainable Campus, said its main project this quarter is the “Green Buckeye” certification for classrooms. “This would be a certification for faculty who want to make their classroom experience more sustainable for students by doing things such as limiting printing or encouraging sustainable practices in every day activities,” Ovchinnikova said. Students can sign the Green Pledge on the organization’s website, and they will then receive monthly tips to help be more green in their everyday life. “It is a commitment students sign that says they value their relationship with the environment and want to be sustainable in their everyday actions,” Ovchinnikova said. Campus has already “gone green” in some ways, such as its bicycle storage and focus on transportation alternatives. If walking or biking aren’t practical, the Campus Area Bus Service buses are a viable option, as they are part of the “Scarlet, Gray and Green” initiative and run on biodiesel. Among the various construction projects taking place on campus, a few are part of the green movement. This can be seen in the narrowing of roads around campus in order to decrease car traffic. Recent construction projects narrowed Woody Hayes Drive and 17th Avenue to make them one lane each way. “I don’t want to put it by force,” Gee said in the

weather

COLLEEN CAREY / Lantern photographer

OSU recently narrowed 17th Avenue (pictured above) and Woody Hayes Drive to discourage cars on campus, and encourage pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Feb. 6 meeting with The Lantern. “But people are advised to walk a lot more because of the fact that we keep those (roads) narrow.” Corey Hawkey, OSU sustainability coordinator, said their goal is to increase sustainability of how people commute to campus. “We want to implement a pedestrian core, a remote parking concept, encourage people to live closer, use buses, bikes and car pool,” Hawkey said.

Transportation is the third largest carbon footprint on campus behind electricity and heating, cooling and steam, Hawkey said. After investing $2 million in bike culture on campus, and being named a “bike friendly campus,” there are several bicycle conveniences around campus for students to use as an alternative to driving.

continued as Footprint on 3A

70-degree day ties record

high 48 low 37

pleasantly surprised how warm it is today … it is a lot better than I thought it would be.” Jeff Rogers, an OSU atmospheric sciences professor, said the 70-degree mark in February is an interesting one. “It happens once in a while, but not very often, and it’s not too unusual for late February,” Rogers said. “Every once in a while we can have days like this.” Rogers attributed the good weather to a tropical jet stream that made its way north. “The air masses and jet stream realign and brings us some tropical air,” Rogers said. “All of this is happening ahead of a cold front.” Rogers said because of the cold front, Thursday’s weather might be about 20 degrees colder than the high on Wednesday. Rogers said on Friday, the weather was supposed to warm up more and reach into the 60s.

partly cloudy

THOMAS BRADLEY Campus editor bradley.321@osu.edu

F SA SU M

Shorts, flip-flops and T-shirts were all spotted on Ohio State’s campus Wednesday, as Leap Day 2012 proved to be warm enough to add it to the record books. This Leap Day is the warmest it has ever been, tying the previous record of 70 degrees on Feb. 29, 1976. When the temperature hit 70 degrees at Port Columbus at about 2 p.m. Wednesday, it officially marked the highest temperature of this year’s meteorological winter, which runs from the beginning of December through the end of February. Michael Walker, a third-year in international business, said this winter has not been like a normal Ohio winter. “I heard it was going to be really cold in Ohio and freezing in the winter,” Walker said. “So continued as Weather Job:I’m 1149 SF8 Lantern 11x2 Newprint Ad Due: on 2/32A

62/41

pm t-storms

46/28

partly cloudy

36/29

snow showers

34/29

partly cloudy CODY COUSINO / Photo editor

www.weather.com

Students outside the Mirror Lake Creamery and Grill have lunch on a 70-degree February day.

1A


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.