#cripplingdebt

Siiigh, why does doing things with other people cost money? Dirt poor, dirt poor, dirt poor.  But the need to participate... Hnnng, priorities.  LOL, oh my have I gone to far?  Fuck it, time to woman up and be about it.

Lee & Helm (2013): Student affairs capitalism is an issue in my mind. I think that our profession as student affairs professionals is to help student succeed and provided them with the opportunities to make the most of their collegiate experience and equip them with the tools to make the world they are entering a better place.  I think student affairs capitalism throws those mantras out the window.  Since student affairs capitalism reorients our profession to be about the financial stability of the institution - we see students less as genuine people, and more as customers who need to be happy 24/7.  However, I think if this is our mindset, we lose the ability to provide challenge to our students.

Generation on a Tightrope (Chapter 7-8): In this chapter, students were asked to discuss some of the problems they think that face the world in the future and some of these issues included the following: natural disasters, environment and quality of education, debt, unemployment, health care, world hunger, slave labor, biased news, oil dependence, etc.  

And while you would think with all these pessimistic views about the world’s future, the students of this generation would be shaking their heads and not knowing what the future for them looks like.  However, when asked about their chances of overcoming these large obstacles of the future, many students were optimistic that they were going to be fine or least successful in some way.  Some of the rationales they gave are incredible.

“I have been surrounded by enough people in my life who had enough confidence in me.  I feel like I will be personally successful in whatever I do.” - This looks at this idea of social support.

“I have the support I need, the will, and the drive” - Social support, self-expectations.

“I’m pretty sure I can play in the game, so I’m pretty optimistic” - Self-expectations, confidence in future.

Each of the above quotes shows me that the generation on a tightrope is going to make it across & be successful in what they do because they have the confidence to do so because of the support of many people behind him.

The future is bright.

The final chapter of this talks about the current generation of college students and the attributes that may be given to them.  They include the following:

1. Weak in face-to-face social skills

I would disagree with that above statement.  I believe that we are not weak in face-to-face social skills.  I believe that we have evolved and become stronger in social skills across different platforms.  Students of this generation are able to FaceTime with each other & communicate in ways that had never been possible before.  I think are social skills are actually becoming more advantageous.

2. Sexually active but interpersonally awkward.

I would absolutely agree with this one.  I think college campuses have a large and thriving hook-up culture and I don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with that. I don’t think people are as committed to relationships especially now at this age because they realize life is fleeting, things change so quickly.  I don’t think people are looking for something permanent, but when they are, they don’t know how to approach it because is not something that is of the norm.  They are awkward in fostering a lasting relationship with a peer.

4. Abusers of alcohol...

I agree with this one to an extent.  I think there are members of this generation that do abuse alcohol because there is a percentage of people that abuse everything.  However, I don’t think that this should be a characteristics of the generation.  I can imagine that generations before us abused alcohol as well.  I think that this should more accurately say that this generation approaches drinking in a more dangerous way (binge drinking) than past generations have.

5. Desperately committed to American Dream.

I think this one is quite vague because what is the American Dream?  I think that each and every person in America has there own version of the American Dream and I would be happy to say that people of this generation should be committed to THEIR AMERICAN DREAM. This is a world where individualities are embraced and recognizing this is important moving forward. I think any dream whatever that may be should be encouraged and supported throughout the collegiate experience.

Student Loans Weighing Down a Generation With Heavy Debt

I think it is absolutely outrageous that there is $1 trillion is student loans that have not been paid back in this country.  It is unfortunate that college is so expensive and is now being burdened by everyone and not just dropouts from for-profit colleges or graduate students who have many years of education.  I think there needs to be a way to make college affordable without allowing everyone to attend or without making it free.  I think that at some point college does need to cost something because I don’t think college is for everyone, and if it is for everyone, what is the point of a bachelor’s degree anymore? I think that this crippling debt should be leading to reform in the sense that people need to know what their actual future earnings and job prospects look like.  I think too often nowadays people think they can just major in whatever they want and they will find a job.  However, with this mindset, they could end like the woman from the article, being $120,000 in debt, no apartment, living with parents, and working two jobs at different restaurants to start paying back her $900 a month student loan payment.  Numbers like that would make anyone look like the person below.