Joshua Chaisson, president of the University of Southern
Maine student body, sounds a common lament when
he says, "My family lives paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford to send
me to college. I have to pay for college all on my own."
"For me to say $21,000 (in debt) is reasonable is
unreasonable," said Anna Korsen, USM PIRG vice president.
Up by 7 a.m. most days, Joshua Chaisson delivers the New
York Times, Boston Globe and the Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram around
campus at the University
of Southern Maine.
A typical day is stretches of work at the campus center
interrupted by class and study time. Even when he gets finished late at night,
he's still working as a residential advisor at one of the dorms.
Chaisson, 21, busts his tail just to get by and pay
tuition, let alone try to graduate.
"My family lives paycheck to paycheck," he said.
"They can't afford to send me to college. I have to pay for college all on
my own."
Meet USM's student body president.
As a group or a statistic, college students are somewhere
between the working poor and lower middle class. You're poor during college
only to kiss goodbye a nice chunk of your post-college paychecks to pay back
loans. Last week students at USM took aim at the problem.
Chaisson was joined by other students in releasing a
report that outlined just how heavy the debt burden is in Maine and around the country. The report was
the product of the national network of Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs),
which studies social, economic and environmental issues on the state level.
Here's the math: According to the report, 39.3 percent of
graduates from public universities and 55.9 percent from private universities
would have unmanageable debt if they got paid what a starting teacher makes in Maine.
When releasing the report last week, students pulled out
all the stops, appearing before cameras at a podium against the backdrop of a
gigantic inflatable ball and chain.
But behind the numbers and theatrics is a real story of
what many students describe as "surviving" college.
Standing on two stacks of copy paper while speaking at a
podium to reporters, Anna Korsen, vice president of the USM PIRG chapter, said
the paycheck-to-debt equation doesn't make sense for students. How are
graduates supposed to get ahead after college, if technically they're already
behind?
Much like the copy paper, Korsen will be standing on her
own unmanageable debt after college, which she calculated at $50,000 and
counting.
Korsen, 23, a sociology major, started off like a lot of
others. She wanted to get out of state after high school and bypassed a
scholarship from USM to go to Simmons College in Boston.
She got a little money from the college and her parents, but when the family's
money in the stock market took a turn, she fell back on loans.
One year at Simmons and she says she was down $30,000.
After taking time off, she went back to school at Champlain College
in Vermont.
One year at Champlain and another $21,000 to pay off, which seemed reasonable
compared to the price tag for one year at Simmons, she said.
She came full circle to USM, where she's a junior and
working full-time at Flatbread Company to help pay the bills.
"For me to say $21,000 is reasonable is
unreasonable," she said.
It's a familiar story to Sara Gallagher, who pulled the
parachute on Wheaton
College after one year.
She says she's already out $14,000.
"I'm still paying Wheaton right now," she said. "It's
really fun."
Gallagher, 20, now studies social work at USM but wonders
what options students have if they want to get ahead in life or have the job of
their choice.
To get the job you want, you need to go to school. To go
to school you need money. To get money, you need that job you want.
"You do what they tell you to do because you want to
go to school," she said.
Andrew Bossie, student body president-elect, said the
problem affects everyone, not just college students.
In Maine,
which struggles to attract and generate jobs, having an educated workforce
makes all the difference, he said. If education is too expensive for a growing
portion of the population, that hurts the state. There's also the widely known
fact that many young Mainers leave the state when it comes to college time, he
said.
The problem needs to be addressed on the state and
national level, Bossie said.
While the federal government needs to increase student
aid, states need to encourage universities to slow increases in tuition, he
said.
But the failure of an education bond package last fall
proves that could be hard, Bossie said.
"Money to higher education is not as high a priority
as other things," he said.
According to the university, at least three-fourths of the
students receive some form of financial aid. In total USM will receive around
$60 million in aid this year, with the bulk coming from the federal sources. At
least $6.6 million comes in private scholarships and $5 million in university
scholarships.
Chaisson, the outgoing president, has a lot pinned on
graduating from USM, he hopes next year.
He was the first in his family to graduate high school,
the first to go on to college. The graduating part all rests on financial aid
from USM. This school year his aid was just short of his needs, hence the job
juggling. To him, one of the sweetest or most agonizing times of year is when
he finds out about his aid package.
"My financial aid award letter is the most
anticipated piece of mail all year," he said, half-jokingly.
As he sees it, the stereotype of college as a place of
out-of-control parties, wacky hijinks and self-exploration is outdated. It's
about work. It's about figuring out where you can live cheaply, what jobs you
can wrangle and how much time you have left to dedicate to actually studying
and hoping for B's, not A's.
"I think a lot of students here are about
surviving," he said. "I know it sounds clichéd, but it's true."
Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or
at:
jellis@pressherald.com
