Student Loans: The Next Bubble to Burst?

As more students are attending and graduating college, they face a bleak job market and high amount of debt.

Students across the California community college system are increasingly applying for financial aid and a new federal law could make paying them back more costly for students continuing their education.

In a last-minute agreement over the summer to save Pell Grants and reduce the country’s deficit, a new law eliminates the subsidies put toward the interest on deferred student loans taken out after July.

Some officials say that because of the deal, student loan payments will continue to edge higher and higher because interest will accrue for graduate and professional students who previously had interest on loans deferred.

Under the deal, however, Pell Grants were protected. The grants, which don’t have to be repaid, are available to students meeting a variety of qualifications including limited income.

And while the cut to subsidies are expected to save the country $21.6 billion over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office, the result could be devastating to students planning to attend graduate schools.

In California alone, the number of students applying for financial aid has increased by about 27 percent since 2008 and awards increased by 35 percent, while nationally applications increased by about 33 percent and awards increased by 65 percent, according to a report by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Melissa Moser, OCC’s financial aid director, to combat the change in loans, students should avoid applying for any financial assistance.

“My advice for students at OCC is to not take out loans unless if you absolutely have to,” Moser said. “These loans never go away and stay with you forever. I would try to use OCC career services and work-study programs as a form of financial aid.”

Moser said that instead of loans, students fill out the FAFSA form and see if they can qualify for Cal Grants along with a Board of Governors Fee Waiver. The waiver pays all of the enrollment fees at California community colleges, she said.

One bright light on the horizon may be a proposal by the Obama administration called Pay as You Earn that will reduce a graduate’s monthly student loan payments to 10 percent of their discretionary income and forgive debt balances after 20 years of payments.

“The student loan debt nationwide is higher than credit card debt,” Moser said, adding that students should avoid adding to the loan debt whenever possible.

When it can’t be avoided, Moser said OCC has a recommended a loan limit of $12,750 per academic year for students. Annual in-state tuition for OCC and other community colleges in the state is estimated at $3,000.

Along with higher student loan debt, students are graduating from four-year colleges with lower starting salaries or no job prospects, according to Moser.

Students say they are concerned about the future of student loan subsidies and what the changes will mean for their financial futures.

“I have between $4 thousand and $5 thousand out in student loans, and I estimate I would have $150,000 by the time I finish school in eight years,” said Matt Jachowicz, a 26-year-old pre-med major at Coast.

Jachowicz said it’s ridiculous that students are incurring massive debts to pay for school when there are no jobs waiting for them when they graduate.

Cheat & Win

Graphic by Tyler Turrett

Studies show a majority of college students cheat and think it’s essential.

A majority of college students cheat and some faculty members may be letting them get away with it, according to recent published media reports and a study released by the Center for Academic Integrity in 2005 and U.S. News and World Report in 1999.

Studies show that more than 70 percent of students have admitted to cheating on exams and 66 percent have also admitted to some form of plagiarism. Additionally, 44 percent of 10,000 faculty members surveyed said they didn’t report students who cheated in their courses.

“Academic dishonesty is not as addressed as it should be,” said Rendell Drew, a social science instructor at Orange Coast College. “Instructors do not address it as they should because there is a major problem with a lack of ethics from both instructors and students.”

Academic integrity means students upholding a set of standards for doing their own work, having good study habits and not cheating on assignments and exams, according to Drew.

To succeed, students must be virtuous and honest, he said.

But according to recent studies and published reports by the New York Times, students who cheat have higher GPAs, and with comparatively lenient policies at California community colleges, cheating may not seem like such a bad idea to many students.

California community colleges, including OCC, are not allowed to fail students for the class if they cheat, but are only allowed to fail students for an assignment, according to Kate Mueller, dean of student services at Coast.

OCC’s policy regarding cheating is if it is the student’s first offense, they are required to do a reflective essay as an educative approach to learn from their mistakes. If they want to get in good standing with OCC, they are invited to take a free seminar on academic integrity. On the second offense, the student faces 11 days to two years of suspension from OCC, according to Mueller.

However, many four-year universities, including Cal State Fullerton and the University of Southern California, have a zero-tolerance policy and the consequences can result in either a reduced or failing grade for the assignment or course, as well as removal from the school permanently, according to school policies.

When students cheat, they use a variety of ways to accomplish their goals, according to officials.

“There are both high tech (smart phones, photography, mp3) and low-tech (baseball caps, water bottle, cheat sheets) forms of cheating,” Mueller said. “Students from all walks of life cheat.”

Instructors should be trained in academic integrity as well as in the new high-tech ways of how students now cheat, according to Drew.

Some services instructors can use to deter plagiarizing include TurnItIn.com and Blackboard Safe Assign, which are websites that compare assignments against other documents to determine if it has been plagiarized.

While a majority of students admit to cheating, even more believe it is necessary to get ahead, with 85 percent of students saying they think cheating is essential, according to the U.S. News and World Report survey.

Along with performance concerns and the need to excel at any costs, other reasons students cheat may stem from a lack of effort because they did not attend class, study or do the reading and when the opportunity presents itself, students are compelled to cheat, according to a study conducted by Point Loma Nazarene University.

Some students coming into college are unprepared and lack the integrity to be responsible enough to do their own work, Drew said.

“My advice for students is don’t do it,” Mueller said. “Students have the ability to change behavior patterns and if they start early and budget their time, they would not feel compelled to procrastinate. Nobody should be self-sabotaging themselves.”

While a majority of students may have cheated and feel it is necessary to get ahead, most regret cheating with only 16.9 percent of students surveyed saying they don’t.

Students Stuck in Blackboard and Sprint Feud

Online class application is restricted to Sprint subscribers.

Students across the nation are stuck in the middle of a legal feud that is limiting access to Blackboard on smart phones and tablets.

The feud between Blackboard, an online learning program, and network provider Sprint is putting non-Sprint subscribing students at a disadvantage because they can’t access the program with Verizon, AT&T or any other carrier.

Most online classes are offered through Blackboard Learn which allows students to navigate lectures, assignments, quizzes and discussions online. Some instructors also use Blackboard in traditional classrooms.

Sprint and Blackboard signed an agreement last year that allowed students to access Blackboard on smart phones through an application that was to be developed by Blackboard and gave Sprint subscribers exclusive rights to the program.

“Coast has been moving intentionally to having more of their classes and classroom support in the online environment,” said Orange Coast College’s Computing Center Coordinator John Fawcett. “Students and instructors are attracted to this and they actually want it.”

Sprint filed a lawsuit against Blackboard in July after Blackboard launched a version of the technology for Apple. Sprint alleges the WiFi version of Blackboard Mobile Learn competes with Sprint’s authorized version of the application, directly violating the exclusivity of the agreement they signed in January 2010.

“This is a wake up call for the business of mobile application development,” said OCC’s Information Technology Trainer Eric Wilson. “There should not be any discrimination in education, even through use of technology. Ultimately, the students are going to pay because they are stuck in this middle of this.”

Educational institutions utilizing Blackboard have two options, according to Anne Duke, senior manager of public relations at Blackboard.

The first is a licensed version which is available to all mobile carriers but requires schools to pay an annual license fee.

The second, which most schools opt for, is a no-cost program which is available only to Sprint subscribers, Duke said.

Opponents of the deal argue that the Sprint-only option would give students a greater incentive to sign with Sprint and students who are non-Sprint subscribers are at a greater disadvantage, especially since more people are using smart phones in replacement of their computers, according to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“The difficulty in smart devices is that it is hard to control the intellectual property and recover the investment from anybody not on the network,” Fawcett said.

According to Fawcett, the mobile application controversy has two arguments. The first is that the application is a value that could help students in their studies and not restrict them. The second is that companies that develop new sophisticated technologies should be rewarded.

According to the lawsuit filed by Sprint, Blackboard has developed, marketed and provided a WiFi version of the application to numerous colleges and directly violates the agreement between the two companies.

According to Blackboard officials, more than 15,000 courses using Blackboard is offered nationwide and close to 9,300 institutions utilized the technology in 60 countries last year.

Through their partnership, Sprint launched a campaign at college campuses to spread word of the application by advertising discounted service plans at these institutions.

Sprint must pay Blackboard $2 per month for every student who has downloaded the free version of Mobile Learn.

Report taken from Coast Report.