S. L. FULLER and MEGHAN GUATTERY
News Editor and Assistant News Editor
Tuition is increasing again in the 2015-2016 academic year, as it does most every year. Unfortunately, financial aid is not increasing accordingly. While universities offer as much help as they can, it’s just not enough to give every student a sufficient amount. This is not only a problem at Fredonia, or even just in New York State — it’s nationwide.
But, earlier this year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced the “Get on Your Feet” loan forgiveness plan. With this program, graduates of New York colleges could be eligible to get their government loan payments covered for two years, as long as students meet the following qualifications:
1. The student must be enrolled in the “Pay as You Earn” program.
2. The student’s income must be less than $50,000.
3. The student must live in New York State for two years after he or she graduates.
4. The student must have graduated in 2015 or after.
While the qualifications are rather restricting, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Daniel Tramuta noted that the program will be rather beneficial to students who qualify.
“For kids who meet that criteria … for New York State to say, ‘Hey guess what? The first two years of your student loans — we’re gonna pay,’ I don’t see any negatives there,” said Tramuta, who, as part of his position, oversees financial aid at Fredonia.
Tramuta went on to mention that, in a world where student loan debt exceeds credit card debt, the average Fredonia student graduates with relatively low debt.
“If students are coming out under-employed and are looking at a big loan payment of $700 or $800, that’s not the case here,” continued Tramuta. “Our students coming out of Fredonia [are] between $25.5-26,000 in debt, which I think is a realistic snapshot of a fair amount that you would owe to obtain a bachelors degree.”
However, Fredonia students have an advantage over many SUNY students, as the school is just one of the five Smart Track financial literacy campuses in the SUNY system.
“If you go to our website, you’ll see our smart track logo, you’ll see all kinds of modules about smart borrowing, debt at graduation, what can you expect to earn based on your major, opportunities to reduce debt, summer work, internships, things like resident assistant positions,” said Tramuta. “We talk about smart borrowing because borrowing isn’t the devil — borrowing irresponsibly is the devil.”
As early as their freshman year, some students begin to map out how exactly they plan to pay back the money they’re borrowing to attend college. Freshman finance major Tina Consalvo agreed with Tramuta. She said she understands the debt crisis college students are facing and stands by her decision to attend a state school.
“We’re all drowning in our own debt, and it just keeps getting worse,” said Consalvo. “If they make college so unattainable, no one is going to want to go. That’s why a lot of the SUNY schools are appealing, too: because it’s a lower cost, and you’re still getting a good education.”
The seniors graduating in less than 10 days are the ones really on their game, preparing for the phone calls they’ll be receiving in regards to both their government and privately funded loans in just a few weeks.
“I know certain things I need to start doing to make it cheaper for me,” said senior economics and political science major Andrew Brudz. “One thing that people need to know about is to pay on the principle and not on the interest. What loans will have you do is have you pay on the interest first, and that actually takes longer, and they get more money out of you. If you pay on the principle it breaks it down quicker.”
Even though there will be many students who will not benefit from the “Get on Your Feet” program under the qualification restrictions, Tramuta has faith in the public university system.
“I believe in higher education, and I believe the return on investment at a place like Fredonia is just immeasurable,” said Tramuta. “It’s a terrific value. But having said that, it’s still a hurdle for families, and what we try to do is bridge that gap. We may not always have the right answer — the answer you want to hear — but we can always lay out the options.”
But there’s only so much the Fredonia Financial Aid Office can do.
Campus-based aid, such as work study and the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG), has not increased in 18 years. In fact, it’s gone down. Tramuta said his office has lost $100,000 in total for funding of the SEOG.
According to http://www.labor.ny.gov, minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $9 at the end of this year. This means that all students who have work study jobs will get an increase in pay per hour. Will Tramuta get more funding to give to students?
No. Instead, hours must be cut from the already small amount allocated to each work study student, or students altogether will not be granted work study positions. Either way, students suffer.
“Why have they cut my grant funding? Why have they cut work study funding? Because of the federal budget deficit,” said Tramuta.
TreasuryDirect.gov shows that as of April 30, 2015, the national debt stands at $18,151,888,501,207.83, and the running national deficit adds to that already gigantic number. So, obviously, the federal government wants to do something about that.
When a company is in debt or running a deficit, it must cut costs in a few places, move personnel around and take other measures. But for the federal government, that means cutting funding and making sure students have to pay interest on their loans.
In fact, Tramuta said that last year, the federal government made billions off of student loan interest. According to “USA TODAY,” the federal government made $41.3 billion off of student loans in 2013.
“Just to compare and contrast,” said Tramuta, “in 2012, Apple earned $41.7 billion, and Exxon-Mobil cleared $44.9 billion.”
“What is that paying for? Is that paying for Obamacare? Is that paying to pay money off the national debt? Sure it is,” continued Tramuta. “It was all calculated.”
In 2011, two big federal grants were cut: the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), and the Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (SMART Grant). And now, the Federal Perkins Loan is next on the chopping block.
In Tramuta’s office sits a collection of pins that reads “Save Perkins Now.” With this loan, students are able to borrow at a frozen 5 percent interest rate. That means that over the years, the interest rate doesn’t increase at all — and students don’t have to start paying it back until after graduate school. If a student works in public service groups after college, like the Peace Corps or Americorps, Tramuta said the loan gets cancelled altogether.
But now, the life of the Perkins Loan is in the hands of Congress.
“We award $1.2 million in Federal Perkins Loan money each and every year. Students need that loan,” said Tramuta. “Now, if that loan’s taken away from the financial aid office as an option, where am I going to send those kids? Am I going to say, ‘Take out a private loan where you’re going to borrow the interest at eight or nine or 10 percent, depending on the credit score of your mom, or dad, or grandmother or uncle … ?’”
As government loan after government loan continues to be taken away from college students across the nation, the “Get on Your Feet” forgiveness program is a step in the right direction toward ridding students of their overwhelming debt.
“It is a way of the governor saying, and I do understand this, ‘You attended a SUNY institution, and our goal in SUNY is to keep our graduates, because we’re a public university in New York,’” said Tramuta. “So it’s calculated, and I can understand that. We just invested, as taxpayers, upwards of $100,000 into your education. They’d like you to stay here, live here, pay taxes here, work here, raise a family. That’s the mind set.”
Students like Brudz seem to be on board with the idea of staying in the Empire State.
“I think they should do something more to help us reduce it quicker,” said Brudz, “but I kind of like the new program. I think it’s smart. I know you have to stay in New York state for two years, which is really not that bad. I would stay here for a couple years if it would cut my debt in half.”