News articles from this week:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-visits-mosque-in-war-torn-bangui-calling-for-end-to-the-conflict-there/2015/11/30/d31a634a-915f-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272_story.html
Pope Francis visits the war-torn city of Bangui, in the Central African Republic. What is most interesting about this story is that there is currently a civil war in which both sides justify themselves with their religions. Pope Francis went to a mosque and spread the message that "Muslims and Christians are brothers."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/us-israel-palestinians-eu-idUSKBN0TJ1N020151130#O5R4wziB6H8xrH1b.97
Interesting piece about how the EU wants products from Palestine to be labeled as such, instead of "product of Israel". The Israeli government responded by saying that they could cut off humanitarian funding to the West Bank if this policy takes place. As a consumer I find it very relevant to know who and under what conditions the product I am buying comes from. After all, how I spend my money is one of the major ways that I affect the world around me. Israel fears that people will boycott their products in Europe if this distinction is made, but I'd think that cutting humanitarian funding would be their last resort, not their first.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article47151700.html
Short AP article about the viral "dancing cop" and how he got fired from his job because he was protesting that his server wrote "blacklivesmatter" on his coffee cup. BlackLivesMatter protesters were going to dance by his new job today.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/30/9818502/blackberry-pakistan-ends-service-government
Security and online culture are two things that have become extremely relevant in the last few years. This article talks about how BlackBerry is no longer going to do business in Pakistan because the government is requiring a "backdoor" into their email services. This seems significant but the aritcle also discusses how this could be a P.R. stunt. Pakistan is not a major market for BlackBerry and they have agreed to share information with various other governments.
http://www.eonline.com/news/719761/j-j-abrams-on-having-a-female-lead-in-star-wars-i-want-moms-to-take-their-daughters-to-see-the-force-awakens
To an extent, the media that we consume changes our view on what is normal in the world. In recent years many studies have suggested that women are not portrayed in the same light as men. Their characters are often less deep than their male counterparts and it is still a lot more common to see a male lead. This article discusses how J.J. Abrams is excited that there is a female lead in the new Star Wars and how he hopes that this will be a movie that "mothers take their daughters to."
Monday, November 30, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
An Alternate "College Experience"
It’s Friday evening in Pullman and the week long anticipation starts breaking out. Music starts playing all over College Hill and within the next few hours most frats and bars will be packed. For most students this is the start of the weekend ritual. Maybe a fun night out on Friday, the football game on Saturday, and a balance of studying and recuperating is left for Sunday. For Conner Donovan, Friday is the transition from his school week to his work week. He dresses in all black and goes to his first eight hour shift, waiting and busing tables. He’ll have at least two more of these shifts by the end of the weekend.
Donovan’s situation is representative of many students who come to Pullman without the financial help of their parents. It’s his first semester here and he is already what many students hope to one day be: financially independent. Of course for a 22 year old who has only worked minimum wage jobs, college tuition is only attainable through the help of financial aid and loans. The problem is that FAFSA, or the free application for student aid, will not consider him as an independent from his parents. This means that he gets no federal grants and is only offered loans. This semester he took out the first loan of $5,500, but he will have to take our more loans in coming semesters for the next four years.
“It’s a daunting experience,” says Conner, “the whole time I feel like I’m juggling between work and school and if I mess up either of them, I either won’t have money for rent or my loans could be cut.” In 2009 the research group Public Agenda published a study that cited “an inability to balance work and school” as the most reported reason for young adults that drop out of college. The study stated that almost three quarters of students who graduated had a household income of over $35,000 while more than half of the dropouts had an income below $35,000. These students are not represented in the college brochures and, in a college town such as ours, it’s easy to forget that they even exist.
This can lead to what many would consider a worst-case scenario, thousands of dollars in loans without a degree to show for it. This is currently the case for Zack Water’s, a W.S.U. student who lost his grants and is now working a minimum wage job with $10,000 of student loans that he has already had to start paying back.
Waters explains that he lost his grant because he “messed up one semester, and then retook the classes [he] did bad on the next semester.” Waters was receiving the cost tuition from the FAFSA and taking loans to cover all of his expenses. He didn’t meet the requirement for total credits in a year, a requirement that he claims to not have fully understood.
Waters still lives in Pullman and intends on completing his degree but is having a hard time going back to school. He believes that he can easily appeal to FAFSA for more loans and grants, but says that he’s hesitant. When he returns to school he wants to keep working to help with his expenses, but he knows that if he messes up again his current situation could become a permanent one. He’s also expressed interest in online classes, saying that it might be a lot easier to fit into a work schedule.
Mark Grinell, another W.S.U. student who works while getting his degree, says that this has worked a lot better for him. Mark moved to Pullman in 2013 after going to Bellevue College. He wanted what he describes as “the full college experience” and so he joined a frat and became a full time student. He also got a job at Southside Cafe, along with $7,600 in loans a year to help cover tuition. Grinell believes that he could be getting a full grant from the government but he cannot file as an independent, despite the fact that he supports himself.
“The frat would get frustrated that I wasn’t involved enough” he explains “and work would accommodate for classes but not for Greek events.” He found himself making work the priority because he needed to pay his monthly expenses and because of this he would take shifts that conflicted with classes. He would try to make up for this during any time he had off, “if you ask anyone from the frat, they’ll tell you that I was the person who was in the study rooms the most. I just couldn’t keep up.” In the end he got kicked out of the frat for not attending events and put on academic probation because of low grades.
He moved back to the Westside because it was easier to find work and he had people that could help him a lot more than here. By the end of 2014 he was enrolled full time as an online student. During his last semester in Pullman his G.P.A. was a 1.9, in the last three online semesters he has averaged a 3.7. He says that this is because he can study on his own time and that it’s easier to find well paid work closer to Seattle, so he doesn’t have to work as much.
Yet, to some extent, all of their college experiences are limited compared to what they could be. All three of these students said that Pullman offered a more complete college experience and Donovan says that he’d love to get more involved in extracurriculars, but that time and cost is keeping him from doing so. They also all said that they wish FAFSA was more flexible and clear. The process doesn’t consider those under 23 who don’t get help from their parents and still is overly bureaucratic. The financial aid department helped them but they all stated that FAFSA should require meetings with a loan supervisor every semester.
But more than anything they all conveyed the same point, that the cost of university is crippling and part-time minimum wage jobs don’t cover expenses. While in Pullman, their priorities were on working to cover their monthly expenses and not on school. Meanwhile, all of them dreaded the prospect of being thousands of dollars in debt for a degree they didn’t finish.
Sources:
Conner Donovan
(425) 894-2071
Mark Grinell
425 736 1567
Zack Waters
206 313 9553
Article about study:
Actual Study:
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Pitch for Profile Story
According to a study done by the Melinda Gates Foundation, nearly three-quarters of students who dropped out of college said that work contributed to their decision, 54% identifying it as a major factor. Considering that, since 2008, only 55% of college students have graduated, finding out the causes and what happens after a dropout seem extremely relevant to in a college town. I want to get specific dropout rates for W.S.U. and interview three people.
One is Zack Waters, who stopped attending school two semesters ago but he continues to live in Pullman with the hope of getting back his financial aid and continuing college. While Zack is living here he has already had to start paying back loans whith funds that he could be saving up to help him when he returns to college. He has 15,000 dollars in student loans and, so far, no degree to show for it.
The second is Matt Grinnell, a student who lived in Pullman and then dropped out for a year, stating that he couldn’t handle working, studying, and being part of the Greek system. He is currently working full time and taking online classes with W.S.U.. He has already started paying back the interest on some of his loans but mostly he works to study and cover living expenses.
Conner Donovon is the third student. It is his first semester here at W.S.U. and he is working as much as he can to cover his expenses. He is dealing with what the other two cited as their reasons for dropping out. He is getting used to the schedule but says that it is hard to keep up with school and work, and that paying rent next month is always a something that stresses him out.
I think that with these three interviews as well as information on dropout rates (and how many people are working while studying) will paint a clear picture of what it is like to have to balance work and school and what happens if you don’t manage to do that.
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