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HIGHER EDUCATION FROM PAGE 1
student loans, according to the most recent 20112012 school year statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics. According to SU’s Office of Financial Aid and Scholarship Programs, this number is 60 percent at SU. For each student, these loans average $7,885 a year at SU and $7,100 each year nationally, according to the same organizations. In New York, college graduates shouldered an average $27,310 debt as they began their professional careers in 2012, said Nicole St. James, project coordinator of the SU/SUNY ESF chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York supplied the statistic. Alarmingly high rates of student debt in recent years have thrown the issue into a national light, she said, noting the cost of outstanding student loan debt in the United States has surpassed credit card debt. Graduating with massive loan debt can take a toll on students’ future plans, added Michelle Polizzi, a senior writing and rhetoric major who has led financial aid workshops on campus as a higher education intern through NYPIRG. “It can really create a hold on what you want to do with your life,” she said. “It’s unfortunate but
APPEAL FROM PAGE 3
Bobby Davis and his stepbrother, Mike Lang, originally filed the suit in December 2011. They claimed Boeheim’s statements that the two were lying and seeking a payday was false, defamatory and “epitomize(d) the epic, years-long failure by Boeheim and the university” to take steps to make sure a man in power wouldn’t abuse boys and teens who assisted the basketball team, according to the lawsuit. Davis and Lang’s suit was dismissed in May 2012 after a judge ruled
PUBLIC SCHOOLS FROM PAGE 3
America and some of the poorest and most diverse people in America, and they were living right next to each other in the same county,” he said. The scores of poor and minority children were averaged with that of high achievers,
“You can’t disconnect race and ethnicity and student outcomes without talking about why they’re at different beliefs about the ways students learn and where those come from.” Reba Hodge
TEACHING AND CURRICULUM GRADUATE STUDENT IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Weast said, causing the higher scores to mask other students’ poor performance. The truth, he said, was there was a “huge gap” related to where a student lived, as well as wealth. He added that the United States in general has dealt inadequately with race.
your financial situation does kind of define you, especially when you’re starting out on your own.” “College is supposed to be about fulfilling your dreams and getting the job you want,” Polizzi, who is also a staff writer for the Daily Orange, continued. College itself becomes an obstacle, she said, by putting students in so much debt. SU’s Office of Financial Aid and Scholarship Programs is working to prevent situations like Polizzi described, said Carlos Adrian, associate director of financial aid compliance. The most prominent form of financial aid at SU is grants that do not need to be paid back, he said, with 71 percent of SU’s undergraduate students using some sort of grant to pay their tuition for the 2011-2012 school year. The average amount in grant money per student was $23,966 a year, he said. Institutions similar to SU — four-year, private, non-profit schools that grant doctorate degrees — had a national average of 74.7 percent students with grants in 2011-2012, with an average $16,100 per student, according to The National Center for Education Statistics. The discrepancy in grant aid between the SU average and the national average can be attributed to a variety of factors, Adrian said. For example, not all states offer grant aid like New York does, he said, likely boosting SU’s average. Additionally, SU’s lofty price tag leaves room – and necessity – for more aid.
Boeheim’s statements were opinions protected under free speech. Boeheim apologized after making the comments. A defamation lawsuit is a type of civil lawsuit where a party tries to recover damages for harm to their reputation. The party bringing the suit has the burden of proof. In New York state, statements that are clearly opinion are privileged, meaning they don’t come with any liability. Davis and Lang’s lawyer, Mariann Meier Wang, said in an email last week she was likely not going to give interviews. She did not respond to an
“I learned how to deal with race and how we really haven’t done a good job dealing with that in America,” he said. “And I learned there that it was hard to actually consolidate school systems, because race and class were bigger issues than most of us think or will ever want to admit.” Some students assessed the lecture as interesting and informative, while others thought Weast didn’t clearly answer questions at the end about race and what parents could do about the Syracuse City School District’s dismal academic performance. Reba Hodge, a teaching and curriculum graduate student in the School of Education, said she liked the idea of having Weast come to Syracuse to speak about leading for equity, but that the lecture lacked in regards in what it means to lead. She said she felt that while he talked about race, he did not address racism. “You can’t disconnect race and ethnicity and student outcomes without talking about why they’re at different beliefs about the ways students learn and where those come from,” she said. “There’s a root cause to the things we think and I don’t think that he addressed them in the way that was beneficial for me and the audience.” Yet Dagmo Yusuf, a freshman inclusive elementary and special education major, said she found the lecture to be interesting, specifically regarding Weast’s discussion of race. Said Yusuf: “I didn’t really know what it was going to be focusing on, and especially because of my race, it’s interesting to hear
Financial aid of any sort at SU chips away at a tuition that is higher than the average fouryear, private institution. SU charges $38,970 per semester, according to its website, in comparison to $29,056 that CollegeBoard estimates to be an average private school tuition. While stressing every family and situation is different, Adrian said the financial aid office would never discourage a student from taking out a loan. Rather, he said, the office works to inform students about their options. One such option - the Pay As You Earn plan, which caps student loan repayments at 10 percent of a students’ discretionary income – was among the initiatives Obama mentioned at Henninger High School on Aug. 22. A second proposal from Obama, which would link the amount of federal financial aid available to a university’s students to the university’s rated performance, would be welcomed by SU, said Adrian. “We’ve been doing many of the things that the president has asked,” he said, noting SU already strives for a high graduation rate, and that students typically do well after graduation. “We’re not going to have to reinvent the wheel.” On the White House’s College Scorecard, a website designed to make transparent college costs in terms of tuition, graduation rates and students’ ability to repay loans, SU has an 80.2
percent graduation rate and a 3.9 federal student loan default rate. The latter compares to a national average of 13.4 percent, according to the site. Christopher Faricy, an assistant professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said Obama is the first president to propose linking a rating system to federal grant money. If enacted, Faricy said, the move would be “humongous.” “As colleges have gotten more expensive, more students are taking out federal loans,” he said. “The federal government can be a bigger player in higher ‘ed’ through the money they control through Perkins and Pell grants and things like that.” The first part of the proposal, creating a ranking system by compiling information already publicly available, could be done without any congressional support, he said, making its manifestation highly likely in the coming years. Actually linking the rating to federal aid would require the approval of a Congress currently politically divided, Faricy said. But even as Republican leaders deal with radical party members who oppose any Democratic proposals, he said, an effort to make colleges more affordable may not be too bold. Said Faricy: “It would be hard to argue against.” nagorny@syr.edu
21 PILOTS
email inquiry Tuesday requesting an interview. SU’s lawyer, Helen Cantwell, and Boeheim’s lawyer, Timothy Murphy, both did not respond to three phone calls and two emails seeking an interview. Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, said the university is declining to comment. Fine, former associate head men’s basketball coach, was fired from SU on Nov. 27, 2011. He has denied all allegations and wasn’t charged after an almost yearlong federal investigation.
released its album “Vessels” earlier this year, helping to spark the band’s popularity. Twenty One Pilots was also highlighted through an MTV Video Music Award for the band’s song “Holding on to You,” which reached No. 10 on Billboard magazine’s alternative chart, according to the release.
dmsegelb@syr.edu
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@dylan_segelbaum
more information about it and know that people are still concerned about this, and
hopefully it’s progress.” ekmeyers@syr.edu
drew osumi | staff photographer JERRY WEAST was the first lecturer of the School of Education’s “The Landscape of Urban Education” series. Weast worked as a superintendent in Maryland for 35 years.