After hours of classes and a less than pleasing commute to Queens, usually with no place to sit on an overly crowded MTA cattle car, Christopher Ng makes his way home for dinner and then prepares to do a few hours of tutoring for a friend’s younger sibling who has been having difficulties in math.
Tutoring has been his only source of money lately. “I had to quit my job at Starbucks because of school, but that meant losing a source of financial assistance,” said Ng, a sophomore who tutors to help him make his way through college. “My parent’s now pay for all of my tuition since I can’t anymore and tutoring only gives me enough for monthly transportation and food.”
In today’s current economic madness, news reports and news media pundits tell New Yorkers the DOW is up, the DOW is down, that the Obama stimulus package is good, that it is not so good, that it’s ugly (admittedly, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). Many New Yorkers have lost their jobs (that’s no exaggeration) or are in fear of losing them (and that’s no exaggeration) and many can sympathize with students like Ng.
The economic dishevel in New York – State and City – can wreak havoc for a student even at a $4000-a-year institution like Hunter (CUNY boasts that it’s offering 2009 classes at 2008 prices). Besides tuition, fees, books, food, campus commutes for classes and commutes to campus back to jobs and then to campus before home, students and their families face lots of bills, which are escalating because of the economy.
Bibi Rahaman, who is working on a nursing degree, spends most of her time at campus and doing school work, and, therefore, relies on her parents for money. “I don’t work because my parents don’t want me to, and they supply me with tuition money,” said Rahaman, a fellow classmate of Ng. “Yet, I’ve noticed a difference in the way my parents manage money and how much I actually have on me. My tuition is definitely not my only struggle, though.”
According to a September 18, 2008 New York Times article, the U.S. Department of Education suggested that the economic fallout could result in a decrease in the nation’s leading college aid program, the College Board, a not-for-profit examination board in the United States that manages many different standardized tests which caters to high school students planning to attend college. It reported that in 1987-198 the maximum grant awarded covered half a year’s study at the average public four-year college but last year it only covered about a third.
The City University of New York has experienced several budget cuts in the last year due to the struggling economy and because of that the average financial aid package has been decreasing with incoming classes to its colleges under CUNY. This fall, as reported in the Times, many community colleges are enrolling students who had planned to attend more expensive four-year public or private colleges, but as the economy worsened they chose the less expensive alternatives.
“My Peter Vallone scholarship was cut down from $650 a semester to 250 a semester,” said Rahaman. “I cant’ afford to lose more of my scholarships due to the economy, and if things continue the way they are it might take me longer to get my nursing license.” The Peter F. Vallone scholarship is granted to high school students who apply to CUNY and have managed to keep a B average. The award started awarding $625 grants a semester but has now cut back to $250 a semester.
With less and less ,financial help students are forced to resort to other sources for the costs of their education. For example, Hannah Levine, the paid features and entertainment editor for the Envoy, works two other jobs as a tutor at the Reading and Writing center and as a paid columnist for Pomp and Circumstance magazine, also a Hunter publication.
Levine said she didn’t feel that see was experiencing any more stress now than before the reports of a major American recession and even talk that Americans may be facing an economic depression. “I think it’s always harder in New York City. The recession makes it worse for some. But this is a very difficult city to survive in, as is,” said Levine, 21. “ I feel bad for my friends who are losing their jobs, but it hard for me to view the recession at a personal level. I feel pretty unaffected.”