Student Loan Blog : ASU

Proposed Budget Cuts Leave Arizona Universities Reeling

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:44:00 GMT

Arizona’s three state universities are considering making drastic budget cuts, including shutting down campuses and eliminating degree programs, as the colleges face a 30-percent reduction in state aid — a projected loss of more than $300 million for all three public universities.

Proposed budget cuts to the state’s university system come as Arizona grapples with a $3 billion-budget deficit this fiscal year and next, reports the East Valley Tribune (“Crow: Cuts Could Close ASU Polytechnic,” Jan. 21, 2009).

If the proposed budget cuts are approved, Arizona State University could lose $320 million over the next two years and Northern Arizona University nearly $50 million, while the University of Arizona stands to lose $103 million in state funds just this year.

The schools, which have already implemented budget reductions precipitated by the economic downturn, are scrambling to find new ways to further slash their already strained budgets.

ASU is considering laying off 2,500 employees, doubling tuition, and shutting down one, or possibly two, of its campuses.

“We could eliminate the nursing school, journalism school, the law school, and the engineering school and still not meet these cuts,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “It’s hard for people to understand the scale.”

“I’m a bit shell-shocked,” said NAU President John Haeger in a university press release. “We have not even modeled a budget for cuts of this magnitude.”

Haeger says the reductions at NAU won’t be possible without fee increases, fewer class offerings, and larger class sizes, as well as work furloughs, increased workloads for employees, and possible staff layoffs.

While it is not known how University of Arizona President Robert Shelton will address cuts the university needs to make, he says the school is exploring money-generating options, including accepting a larger number of out-of-state students who pay higher tuition and fees than in-state students.

Shelton says he agrees that cuts to higher education are needed, but he maintains that the type of reductions the state legislature is asking for “are so extreme that they would absolutely cripple higher education in our state.”

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Online Ordering Causing Mailroom Mayhem on College Campuses

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:46:00 GMT

The internet has completely changed the way college campuses operate, from class offerings and registration to college admissions and financial aid services. Now the technology is changing the way campuses deliver and receive mail. As more college students gravitate to online shopping, college and university mailrooms are overhauling their mail processing operations to accommodate the influx of packages.

Some pretty bizarre ones at that.

Car tires, barbecues, dishwashers, ant farms and air conditioners are just some of the orders college students are having mailed to their dorm rooms, according to a New York Times article by Jonathan D. Glater (“Majoring in Mailroom Management,” Nov. 21, 2007).

When students make their online purchases they often give little thought to the cost let alone the effect their shipping volume or types of packages they’re ordering will have on the mail processing centers at their schools. But for some schools, the adjustment has not been simple or cheap.

Revolutionizing the Mailroom At a Cost

The University of Southern California, for example, has experienced double the amount of their typical package volume in the last four years, expecting to process more than 67,000 packages by the end of this year. It has spent thousands of dollars adjusting their mail processing systems by building a new highly-complex mailroom almost as large as half a volleyball court for just one of their residence halls, Glater reports.

“Some folks don’t realize the logistical implications,” said Jeff Urdahl, the recently retired director of housing at USC, told the Times. “It’s a different world.”

Although online shopping statistics don’t exist for the college age demographic, according to shop.org, a division of the National Retail Foundation, internet buying increased nearly $220 billion last year and this year it is expected to top $259 billion.

And how are students paying for these purchases? Most interviewed for the Times article said their online shopping splurges are financed by college jobs, savings and parental allowances, but many students are also resorting to their good friends Visa, Master Card and American Express.

But students’ online ordering habits are not only affecting theirs and their parents’ bank accounts, they are also proving costly for the schools themselves. SUNY Binghamton spent $25,000 to implement a new bar code scanning system to track the increase of incoming packages, which rose from 33,000 in 2002 to 57,000 this year. Purchase College, also in New York, spent $37,000 on a similar system.

For Arizona State University, the second largest university in the country, the process became so cumbersome, the school chose to wash its hands clean of the mail distribution process and turned over all mail responsibilities to UPS.

Mindless Internet Shopping Hurts Students and Schools

The effect of students’ online spending is not isolated to schools; students’ bank accounts are taking huge hits as well. Credit and debit card use, necessary for online shopping, makes it much more difficult for students to keep track of their spending and their account balances.

Some students told the Times that they may buy something off the internet three times a week. This has led college students, according to Young Money, a student financial magazine, to have credit balances averaging $2,700, and as the popularity of internet shopping continues to rise, these numbers may only go up.

Students like Sarah Staton, a first year student at USC, don’t mask their online shopping activities; however they don’t quite seem to understand the effects it has on their finances.

“I do buy a lot of things, but it’s O.K. because I buy things that are cheap,” she told the Times. She admits to shopping on the internet more than two hours a day, especially for shoes. “How can I make a fashion statement if I don’t have the right shoes that match what I’m wearing?”

With this type of attitude, it looks like college mail centers and students will have to keep expanding their wallets.

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Clap Your Hands and Say Green

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:46:00 GMT

“Green” for college students doesn’t mean what it used to. The phrase that once only conjured images of leafy substances now signifies recycling bins and fuel-efficient cars.

The “Go Green” campaign geared up into craze mode following Al Gore’s widely successful documentary of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth. And the trend has spread across the country, from individuals changing their daily living patterns at home, to entire communities, like those on college campuses, making massive strides toward large-scale lifestyle and operation alterations.

Home to over 17 million college students throughout the United States, campuses are ideal locations for change, and some schools believe it’s their “moral responsibility to be at the forefront of the green movement,” according to an article that appeared on eSchool News Online (“Colleges Make Commitment to Go ‘Green,’ ” June 14, 2007).

College Campuses Strive for Carbon Neutrality

On June 12, leaders of more than 280 colleges and universities signed an agreement to reduce their campuses’ carbon consumption. Although each school’s rate of reduction will vary based on the campus’s size, location and population, the overall goal of the American College University Presidents Climate Commitment is to cut down greenhouse gas emissions and conserve resources.

The committed schools represent only 15 percent of U.S. college students, but their pledges are substantial, including a commitment to implement green building codes, use alternative forms of transportation and purchase energy from renewable sources.

As part of their pledge, colleges are encouraged to commit to a carbon neutral target date. Some campuses don’t foresee carbon neutrality for 20 or 30 years, with limited public transportation one of the major obstacles facing schools in rural and some suburban areas, which experience a stubborn and pervasive use of student cars. On the other hand, Middlebury College in Vermont, one of the schools furthest along in its climate-conserving efforts, has committed to carbon neutrality by 2016.

Paint the Town Green

But in order for colleges to become eco-friendly, it will take more than just reducing carbon emissions. Practicing sustainability on a college campus requires broad-spectrum changes, backed by a shift in the students’ mindset and the institution’s mission.

Taking this sweeping climate-change mission to heart, the eco-conscious administrators at Arizona State University are making noteworthy changes. ASU’s Biodesign Institute was recently named as of the state’s most environmentally friendly structures, according to an article by Ryan Radazzo that appeared in The Arizona Republic (“ASU Biodesign Named as One of Country’s Top ‘Green’ Buildings,” Aug. 3, 2007).

Inside and out, the entire building boasts green accents, and we’re not talking painted walls, decorated light fixtures or designer carpeting. But structural elements—like rubber flooring and aluminum ceilings—made of recycled materials, low-flow faucets, waterless urinals, sunlight-reflecting parking lots and natural light atriums are enough to make all the other campus buildings green with envy.

Other innovations at the award-winning Biodesign Institute include a 5,000-gallon cistern that collects air conditioning condensation to use for watering the landscaping, and solar panels to reduce the energy needed to power the facility.

The Biodesign Institute consists of two adjoining buildings, with building B, completed in 2006, as only one of 40 structures nationwide to receive platinum-level certification for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Building A, which opened in 2004, received gold-level certification.

Radazzo reports that USGBC, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., consisting of more than 10,000 organizations committed to sustainability in the building marketplace, has certified 19 other buildings in Arizona. The state has 174 other projects waiting certification.

“That's a number that has jumped 44 percent in the last year,” Radazzo writes. “It's a faster growth rate than enviro-conscious California.”

ASU serves as just one example of a university committed to enacting environmentally conscious changes. Colleges and students across the country have been and will continue to wrestle with balancing an appealing campus that accommodates students’ needs against stricter sustainability practices.

For more information on how to join in the fight to “go green” visit the Inconvenient Truth Web site.

Talk to the education finance advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Student Loan Girl

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