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| March 2, 2017
FOO Trips Welcome New Feb Students to Midd By Sarah Boyle Contributing Writer
gued), but immigration is still a big issue in this state,” Wojeichowska cited as the importance of focusing on Vermont poliMembers of the newest class of 2020.5 cies in particular. got their first taste of Vermont this past Students Krista Karlson ’17.5 and weekend with trips that ranged from Matea Mills-Andruk ’18.5 organized the backcountry skiing and ice climbing Feboutdoor trips with aid from Orientation ruary Outdoor Orientation (FOO!) trips to and Outdoor Programs Training Specialimmigration in Vermont and local healthist Kent Ratliff ’16 and Director of Outcare Community Engagement trips. door Programs and Club Sports Doug The trips lasted for one and a half days Connelly. and were not required for all Febs, but Many of the trips were based on ones many of the members of the new class that the College has sponsored in the past. did participate. 75 students participated Factors taken into account included trails on three backcountry ski trips, five snowthat were large enough for the group sizes shoeing trips and two community engageof each trip. ment trips. “[The staff tried to] use areas that will These trips aimed to provide first-year help new students understand where they Febs with new friends in both their class are in the world and get to enjoy our outand other grades while exploring the difdoor environment,” said Assistant Direcferent areas that their new home in Vertor of Orientation, Amanda Reinhardt. mont has to offer. Molly Colwell ’20.5 participated in one Trip costs totaled at of the Back$75 per participant, but country Skiing scholarships were made trips. The trip’s available to students “[The staff tried to] use itinerary took who could not cover the an unexpected areas that will help new stufull payment. Due to turn with the the limited time during dents understand where they warm spell and February Orientation, lack of snow are in the world and get to these trips took place and became intwo weeks after the new enjoy our outdoor environstead a hike on class moved in. the Catamount Those involved in ment. ” trail. the planning process “[I enjoyed] Amanda reinhardt brought their diverse getting to know thoughts and expertise assistant Director of Orientation a new group of to the table. Klaudia people that I Wojeichowska ’17 orgahadn’t yet gotnized the Community ten to know that well,” Colwell said. Engagement trips with input from the AsShe decided to go on a FOO! trip for sociate Director of Community Engagethe opportunity to meet other Febs and ment, Ashley Laux. The Center for Com“to get out and explore Vermont in a cremunity Engagement also helped the staff ative way.” come up with trip ideas that were relevant Participants in the incoming Feb class today within the community and that had were not the only ones who enjoyed the corresponding organizations willing to FOO! experience. Karina Zyatitsky ’20 host volunteers. co-led a Backcountry Skiing trip, and deWojeichowska created the Community tailed how she loved how everyone in her Engagement trips with some of the coungroup was energetic and open minded try’s most pressing issues in mind. when trying Nordic skiing. She considered the Immigration in “None of the participants had much exVermont trip to be “quite a timely trip perience on Nordic skis but everyone was considering Trump’s presidency and all very enthusiastic, willing to try it out,” Zythe talk that has been centered around atitsky said. immigration in the last few months.” Zyatitsky decided to become a FOO! “In many respects, Vermont is a liberal leader because of her positive experience bubble (although that itself could be ar-
Haley Tetreault
Students of the class of 2020.5 hiked through snow and cold on their February Outdoor Orientation trips. with MiddView in the fall. “[MiddView] really made me feel welcomed into the Middlebury community, I wanted to pass on that experience,” she said. Zyatitsky’s FOO! experience enabled her to make lasting friendships in the fall and she hoped to help form those bonds with new Febs and “bridge the gap between the Febs and the Regs.” Leaders applied to lead FOO! trips through a detailed application and qualifications process. Due to their responsibilities for a group of students, all outdoor leaders had to complete at least a Wilderness First Aid certification course in order to lead. Zyatitsky participated in a FOO! oriented winter guide seminar during Jterm, which entailed two sessions and a leader overnight trip. The program focused on knowledge and procedures for winter camping and leadership skills and group facilitation. Additionally, she completed a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course over February break, which consisted of over 80 hours of training to handle emergency situations in the outdoors. The qualifications for the Community Engagement trips were different, but still ensured that each leader was the best per-
son for the job and was prepared for their role during the trip. Leaders met every week to discuss topics including what makes effective community services, learning about active citizenship and how to lead a reflection after a service opportunity. Further, leaders participated in a day of service, which Reinhardt explained provided them an opportunity to put some of these training topics into practice. All leaders were required to have previous leadership roles and be involved in community engagement at Middlebury in some way. The February Outdoor Orientation and Community Engagement trips are staples in welcoming incoming Febs to the Middlebury and Vermont community. Members of the planning team hope that all Febs were able to connect with each other and their surrounding environment in an alternative way during their first few weeks of college. Upper-class students were also able help the new students adjust to life at Middlebury by answering questions and sharing their experiences. These trips provided Febs with the opportunity to appreciate their new home and friends that they will make over their four years.
Market Mu$ing$: Let’s Talk About Student Loans By Jackson Adams Columnist This week I considered covering the imminent Snap, Inc. initial public offering, but instead I figured we should talk about something far more fun; namely, the student debt market. So today let’s talk about the most taboo of post-graduation discussions: your loan balance. Cue dramatic music. If you’ll be graduating in debt this May, you’re in good company. 44 million Americans have student loans, which is almost 20 percent of all adults. In fact, among millennials, about one third are part of this group. All of this makes student loans the nation’s largest source of non-housing debt. All told, students owe an astounding $1.3 trillion. If that number seems impossibly large to you, I hope you’re sitting down. The Federal Reserve of New York reports that housing debt was just shy of $9 trillion in the last quarter of 2016. But here’s the difference: the default rate on home mortgages is a scant 0.72 percent while the student default rate on education loans is more than 11 percent. For those of you who didn’t faint at that default rate, I have worse news. Defaulting on student loans is harder than for other obligations. To default on student loans, you need to be at least 270 days behind on payments, so the 11 percent figure doesn’t capture the whole story. Per Robert Hiltonsmith of Demos, a public policy think tank, “Nearly 40 percent of student loan borrowers are either in default or more than 90 days past due on their student loan payments.”
And Hiltonsmith offers grimmer statistics; it turns out the size of the loan doesn’t correlate all that well with the likelihood of default. 56 percent of borrowers in default owe less than $20,000. One third owe less than $10,000. Let’s pause, briefly, to acknowledge the bright side. The loans we’re talking about have made the dream of college or graduate school a reality for millions of people who otherwise would not be able to attend. Furthermore, college is objectively a good investment. Over a lifetime, college graduates in the U.S. earn roughly one million dollars more than their counterparts with only a high school diploma reports Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce. And post-grad degrees tend to have a large positive effect on earnings too. Plus, according to Sandy Baum, author of “Student Debt: Rhetoric and Realities of Higher Education,” a third of college students who earn a four-year degree will graduate debt free. Even better for all of us, the Washington Post reports that private, non-profit college default rates (around seven percent) are well below the national average. Ok. Enough positivity. Back to bad news. After a great amount of progress, there is concern that defaults rates will rise again for for-profit college graduates. Default rates have been coming down since Obama-era reforms began punishing colleges whose rates of student employment and debt repayment were below a certain threshold. Now, the Department of Education is led by Betsy DeVos, who is not only a proponent of for profit colleges, but personally prof-
its from extensive investments in companies who operate them. If protections are scrapped, default rates could climb again. It’s unfair, however, to lay the blame solely on for-profit colleges. The cost of tuition and fees at all institutions has increased at a blistering pace over the past decade, increasing financial strain on borrowers. Department of Labor data show that between 2006 and 2016, tuition and fees rose nearly 62 percent, and textbook prices climbed 87.5 percent. The Consumer Price Index, a measure of the average prices of goods and services in the economy only rose about 20 percent over the same period. This means the average loan size has increased rapidly as well. The growth of student loan debt is also driven in part by more loans getting securitized (bundled into financial instruments that pay investors a fixed interest rate that is backed by the portfolio of loans contained within) and then sold to investors. These instruments are called Student Loan Asset-Backed Securities (SLABS). SLABS push the risk of the loans from the original lender onto investors. In theory, this means lenders can generate more loans and do so more cheaply, which is good for borrowers, but it also means there is less incentive for the lenders to do due diligence. SLABS are generally considered safe investments by debt rating agencies (groups that grade bonds based on their safety/likelihood of being paid back) because student loan debt is almost never forgiven, even if you declare bankruptcy. Plus, nearly 80 percent of the market is
backed by the U.S. government. This has brought about wild popularity for these instruments, especially in a world where the yield on traditional fixed income assets (e.g. bonds) has been historically low. But the safety may prove illusory. SLABS are reminiscent of the mortgage backed securities that were blamed for catalyzing the 2008 financial crisis. There are billions of dollars of debt instruments, many backed by some sort of government guarantee, and all with higher credit ratings than might logically be assigned given the credit ratings of the underlying borrowers. If the economy turns south again and former students saddled with debt and out of jobs cannot make timely payments on their loans, these popular SLABS may lose value rapidly. Even the ones backed by the U.S. government could become illiquid causing a crisis. Some have speculated that student debt could be the next catastrophic market bubble. All very depressing, yes, but it is a bit melodramatic. Even though student debt levels are high, they’re nowhere near what was seen before the housing market crash less than a decade ago. In an August 2016 article in the Chicago Tribune, Jill Schlesinger pointed out that in 2007, the average mortgage debt was “nearly $100,000,” whereas the “median student debt is much lower: $13,000.” If there is a student debt bubble, at least it’s not likely sink the global economy when it bursts. That said, for the students who cannot afford to make their payments, the financial ramifications are catastrophic enough.