Spring 2019
APSCUF-KU Newsletter
Kutztown University Chapter Association of Pennsylvania State College and University
Message From President -- Thomas Stewart $36,000. That amount of money would be a massive down payment for a first-time homebuyer. That would cover the entire cost of a new car or SUV. It would cover relocation costs and new furniture for those in search of a new job, with thousands--if not tens of thousands--of dollars left over.
For the typical new Pennsylvania college graduate, however, $36,000 is not the amount of money they have in the bank when they start their post-college lives; instead, it is the average student loan debt they have at graduation. The heavy burden of student debt has deservedly been national news in recent years. According to a November 2018 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Two-thirds of Pennsylvania students borrow to pay for their education and accrue...the highest [debt] of the nation.� $36,000. Being the highest, in this case, makes Pennsylvania the worst. Fifty years ago, my parents bought their first house together for $32,000. For two fairly recent college graduates, it was a huge purchase at the time--over $200,000 in 2019 dollars. Neither of them, however, owed a single dollar from their college days. My father’s tuition, for example, was only $55 a quarter at the University of Minnesota, which was in a state that strongly supported its universities. Unlike student debt, that first house provided not only a place to live, but also equity that helped my parents as they started a family. Seventeen years later, now with five children, they sold the house for $130,000, money they used to buy their next house and to put everyone through college. This is a pattern my siblings and I have been fortunate to repeat in one form or another over the last couple of decades. Many millennial students, however, are not getting this opportunity. The post-college burden of debt has led many students of this generation to delay what were considered rites of passage into adulthood just a generation or two ago: buying a house, pursuing long-term relationships and marriage, parenthood. Exploring different career paths 1