The Voice - Student Newspaper

Students feel effects of unstable economy

By Alex Marlar
Freelance Reporter, The VOICE

The college years are regarded as the best years of any student's life due to their break away from the nest and new found independence but could this freedom be at risk?

Students are at a high risk of losing much sought after financial aid and rising tuition because of the falling stock market.

No college student makes a booming one hundred thousand dollars a year and cannot afford to pay for school, housing, and various necessities out pocket; payment options for students will drastically change if the market continues to fall.

The support needed from financial aid will drop significantly and will put more students out of, what they thought was, their future plans.

Unfortunately this decrease in financial aid will occur due to the fact that the very generous donors that support the schools will be unable to give out as much money as they were able to before.

This will also manage to lead the school into a bind and they will have to raise their tuition because the incoming donations will be unable to offset the current tuition.

This dangerous trend for colleges and universities will cause a higher number of attending students to dropout and prospective students will chose not to attend the institution as well.

Students reading this may feel that they are the only ones who will be affected by the future changes in the finances of colleges and universities but they may suffer just as much if not more.

The amount of construction, expansion, and hiring will have to be halted in an effort to cut costs and save money.

Without this growth the schools will have to get rid of their major programs and will have to raise their tuition to make up for this compromise instead.

Boston Globe, Peter Schworm quotes Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., who replied to the future problem as stating, "more people will say 'It's not worth the money and we can't afford it.

There is going to be a drop in the number of people going to high-priced schools."

Glendale Community College is lucky to be a public institution because private schools have to deal with the massive drop rate in student enrollment.

Schools like the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA and Yale University in Hartford, CT will feel the pain in the next few years as the stock market continues to fluctuate and put the status of their universities at risk.

Finding a solution to this tremendous problem with the financial well being of the country may have come with the "Bail Out" plan.

We as students have to hope the bail out will save us from suffering in the future.

No one should have to stop learning because of money.