A FREE THURSDAY PUBLICATION
THURSDAY AUGUST 27, 2015
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It’s time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” (Ronald Reagan)
SOUTHBOSTONONLINE.COM
A Short Note on College Costs by Rick Winterson You have heard endless stories about the rampaging costs of going to college. They’ve risen by several percentage points just since last year. The accumulated debt from college student loans is now well north of $1 Trillion dollars (in numbers, that’s $1,000,000,000,000) – the largest form of personal debt in the nation. Jon Keller, the WBZ news analyst, took on college costs in his “Keller at Large” minicast last Monday morning. He was both emphatic and caustic (as usual) that the expense of attending college – Keller called it “a gravy train” - must not only stop increasing but also must drop significantly, the implication being that many college degrees simply are no longer worth what they cost. Not even close. So far this year, some seven million former students-in-debt have been unable to make any payments on what they owe for school. South Boston Online has a small additional point of its own to make about college costs: Last Sunday, August 23, you might have seen that the Boston Globe devoted their
Stressed Out?
Ideas & Opinion Section K to the topic of Food. On pages K8-9, they had an article about the dining program on the main UMass campus in Amherst by Kathleen Kingsbury, a Globe columnist. Her article’s title stated (in part), “UMass is America’s largest dining program.” In the first paragraph of the article, which briefly described the UMass dining program, Kingsbury gave an important fact about that program’s cost to students at UMass Amherst: “That’s some 6 million meals per year and $85 million in revenue, …” South Boston Online apologizes for using so many figures in our “Short Note”, but those figures divide out to $14.17 per meal. To state it another way, that means every meal served by the UMass Amherst dining program – breakfast, lunch, and dinner costs the diner an average of just over $14. That’s a total of $42.50 for three meals a day. South Boston has several restaurants where you can find good meals for less, even when taxes and tips are included. So, if you go to UMass Amherst, eat breakfast at home before you leave and be sure to bring your lunch. Then, at the end of your day, come back to Southie for a good supper.
DON’T MAX-OUT!
Mural Adorns Columbia Road
When you walk along Columbia Road or Day Boulevard or the Harbor Walk along Carson Beach, be sure to look for the new and colorful mural that adorns the Old Colony Development, at #1244 near the playground and the Collaborative Center. It was created mentored by Rachel Finkelstein, an ESOL teacher, and the mural’s purpose is “Uniting the community Through the Arts”. The final design and the finished painting was done by members and families in South Boston en Accion, a local non-profit managed by Samuel Hurtado. In Samuel’s words, “This project has created a sense of unity among us.” Funds were provided by the Convention Center’s Community Development foundation (the SBCDF); the mural’s dedication was followed by a home-made buffet lunch.
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