#impactbu

In an environment of high tuition fees and debt, unpaid work only worsens the negative impact students and the larger community experience. Check out this student-organized event:

Labor of Love: How Unpaid Work Exacerbates Inequality

Thursday at 19:00

Join !mpact for our first film screening of "Default: The Student Loan Documentary". The film chronicles the stories of borrowers from different backgrounds affected by the student lending industry and their struggles to change the system. Many borrowers find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying tow, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and on recourse to the law.

Free food!

Date: November 21th, 2013 Location: The Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism. 775 Comm Ave, Basement of the George Sherman Union Building Time: 7.00pm

For Boston University students like College of Fine Arts sophomore Taylor Mortell, the debt they will be drowning in post graduation will critically hinder their plans for the future.

  “I definitely am not going to be able to pursue graduate school until later in life, which is important to me because I would like to be teaching on a university level at some point, and in order to do that you need to get an MFA in whatever your specialized area is, so painting or sculpture [for me]. I will need to focus on paying off all this debt that I will have after I graduate,” said Mortell.

  BU’s cost of education continues to escalate annually at astonishing levels: this 2013/2014 academic year, tuition rates ra

ised by 3.7% and room and board rates raised by 3.3%, according to financial reports.

  Mortell is a co-founder of a greater Boston community art project called “Still Running: An Art Marathon for Boston,” which began in response to the Boston Marathon tragedy. She organizes free community art making events throughout the city to foster a sense of healing and growth. The artwork produced is then given to local hospitals, first responders, and police. Additionally, she is involved in the Arts Initiative group on campus, which was launched to ensure that all students, regardless of academic major, have exposure to the arts. 

  “I don’t like how you can’t be considered for really any additional scholarships after you’ve been accepted,” Mortell said. “Generally, what you’ve been accepted with is the best case scenario in terms of merit awards just because since I’ve gotten here, I have been particularly very active in arts outreach and done a lot of good things for BU and a lot of good things for the greater Boston community, and my financial package this year was non existent. I feel like I am doing a lot of good things for the school. It feels as though I don’t matter to them as a student, and that’s not right.”

  Students like Mortell do not only feel dismissed financially by administrators, but also poorly informed, and even deceived in terms of where their money is going.

  The financial reports released by BU administrators raise the questions of: why are these increasing rates necessary, and where exactly is our money going, as BU administrators fail to provide students with more transparent financial reports. Students are left unaware of where their disgusting near $60,000—and counting—is being invested. The reports consist of vaguely labeled categories of distribution such as “fees.

  “When I was applying to this school, the way admissions advertised it to students was we have all these great facilities, and all these career resources, and we have the best dorms, the best dining halls, and that kind of justifies the price tag,” Mortell said. “But really, since I’ve been here, CFA doesn’t have those facilities, the career development center doesn’t know what to do for artists in particular. They’re like, ‘well, I don’t know what to tell you,’ so that resource is not there either.”

  As for housing, “to live in the beautiful dorms that they advertise is significantly more money for housing. And the regular dorms that I am living in, does not have heat that works consistently, cell phone reception, or hot water. So, those are basic things that I feel if I am paying almost 60,000 dollars to live here, that I should have,” Mortell said.

  Without transparency, students like Mortell are unable to determine if their money is being utilized responsibly, nor are they able to actively advocate for where they would like to see their money going towards. 

  “I don’t know where the funds are going, so I can’t really advocate for a better career development center, better facilities, better work—it directly impacts the quality of my portfolio in that maybe I’m not be producing the best work I could be, and also maybe I am not getting the most relevant experience I could be to become a studio apprentice or have some type of job in the visual arts, which are hard to come by and have that translate into a job, and eventually a career,” Mortell said.

Before I say anything, I want to applaud Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman John Tierney for working to make positive change for students in higher education. The past week, both of them proposed the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act in their respective chambers. This would bring interest rates for Federally subsidized student loans currently at 6.5% down to the same level as the 0.75% ones big banks take out from the government.

With that being said, I think the legislation may exacerbate the problem of rising college cost rather than fix it. Too often, our discussion surrounding unaffordable college education focuses on too few grants and too high interest rates. Neither of these addresses the issue at the core of the matter: skyrocketing cost.

While low interests will alleviate some burden on students, it will give colleges another opportunity to justify even steeper increases in tuition. If loans have less interest, why not make students take out more?

Unfortunately for Massachusetts representatives, higher education increasing tuition prices is a double edged sword. The industry is a huge source of revenue for the state, but crippling student and increasingly prohibitive prices hurts its long term growth. The industry's increasing profits also means that higher ed is becoming a more powerful lobbying force in government. 

Bridget Daley (CAS ’16)

            There’s a problem with BU that does not have to do with rising tuitions, bad housing numbers, or not having enough dining points to order Dominos every weekend.  BU has lost its sense of being a university; an academic atmosphere geared towards molding the minds of our generation, and instead has become obsessed with its need to fuel its corporate appeal.

            As someone who grew up in Boston, I had the unique opportunity to watch how the universities around me took over the city.  College students surrounded me, literally, as I couldn’t walk down any street in Boston without spotting at least one student. They were everywhere, they are everywhere, and they are taking over. The problem, however, is not the college students’ faults; it’s the colleges and universities they attend that are perpetuating these growing populations. It’s no secret that colleges and universities are seeking money, whether it’s from their students, alumni, or even the general public, but it’s getting out of hand.

            BU is taking over and they are taking over with a vengeance. I remember before I was a student, as a Bostonian, I would completely avoid the MBTA Green Line and BU’s campus in general. Even as BU student, I still want to avoid these areas. Commonwealth Avenue is no longer a major street in Boston that connects the heart of Boston to the suburb of Newtown, rather it’s identity cannot be separated by the ever-growing corporate entity that is BU. Because BU is so large and is so focused on it’s corporate appeal, it has forgotten its students.  BU is obsessed with its presence as a university but forgets what it actually means to be a university. As a BU student, you are not treated like a person with needs and aspirations, but as an ID number. Freshmen learn how the systems work at BU from their upperclassmen friends, instead of from the university. If you do not actively seek answers to your questions, or solutions to your problems, you will not find them on campus. Resources are plentiful at this university but the problem is, the university does not advertise these resources nearly half as much as they advertise themselves as a corporate entity. The identity of BU does not represent the resourceful university it is and therefore students get left by the way side in favor of building the university rather than building up its students.