Northwest Fun Fest - NW Campus held colorful community event Page 4
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 – Volume 36 • Issue 3
DISTRICT
@tccthecollegian • collegian.tccd.edu
DISTRICT
Gun violence has become part of students’ daily lives RABBIA MOLAI
managing editor rabbia.molai@my.tccd. edu
While getting ready one day, NE student Ana Duran faced the scariest situation that any parent could imagine. Duran was in her room when she asked her mother to put her young daughter down for a nap. As her mother took the girl into her room, she suddenly felt strange about putting her granddaughter in her crib. Instead, she chose to lay down some blankets and put her on the floor. She may not have known it then, but that split-second decision saved her granddaughter’s life. Within a minute, someone drove down Duran’s street, opening fire on the row of houses. One bullet went directly through her daughter’s bedroom window and landed on the floor outside her door. Before hitting the floor, the bullet went through the crib, the same crib Duran’s daughter would have been sleeping in had her grandmother not trusted her gut instincts. Unfortunately, for Duran and her family, the sound of gunshots was not unfamiliar. “As a parent, it is scary. I have been in two drive-bys,” Duran said.
Emerson Clarridge/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS
Three people were shot on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 28 at a house in northwest Fort Worth. “First, one being early afternoon, two of my kids ages 4 and 5 were walking out the front door to go play outside when a car passed through shooting. Bullets hit the house right above their heads. Now, any lower or them being taller, they would have got hit.” Having one shooting experience was scary enough, but after the second, Duran was so petrified that the only way she could sleep was low to the ground with her children in the same room. According to the Centers for Disease Cont rol a nd Pre ve ntion, Texas had over 4,000 gun-related deaths in 2020. On Aug. 29, two boys aged 17 and 5 were killed in a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth. Along with them, an
18-month-old was injured. According to students, as sad as these tragedies are, they seem to just be daily occurrences at this point. “It’s always devastating when a shooting happens, and most certainly when people lose their lives,” NE student Keylynn Jenkins said. “It has honestly happened so much in the past few months that I’m not surprised anymore. It’s sad to feel this way, but it’s almost like the new ‘normal.’” Along with feeling the country’s desensitization to these acts of violence, some students also felt a need to try and come up with solutions to end the gun violence they see so often for fear of who might get hurt next.
“I was aware of the shooting that happened, and my first thought was, ‘I hope it wasn’t anybody I know,’” NE student Julian Herrera said. Since he graduated from high school in 2020, Herrera has lost four classmates to gun violence. He spoke about wishing he could find a solution to end gun violence in America. “I would love to see the banning of assault rifles and extensive yearly background checks for gun owners with the possibility of mandatory training like for a driver’s license,” Herrera said. “Gun violence is such a prevalent problem in America because guns are legal.” Much like Herrera, NE student Katherine Beltran also thinks more needs to be done to fix the problem “I think if people, in general, are worried about the state of the country and how it’s falling apart with senseless violence, we need to do a whole lot more than relying on ‘sending our thoughts and prayers,’” Beltran said. For student like Duran, until the changes are made the fear will continue to live on in the back of their minds “It’s a life-changing experience,” Duran said. “It leaves you scared to live your normal life.”
Dancers slide into Northwest Fest
Joel Solis/The Collegian
Josh Cook and the Mosaic Dance Project show off their moves at Northwest Fest. Page 4
Muse releases new music “Will Of The People” is for the people Page 2
New 365 days of headaches A movie so bad it shouldn’t have made it to the screen Page 2
Gen Z mental meltdown The world Gen Z has been given is a mess Page 3
Ariel Desantiago/The Collegian
NE financial aid assistant Emma Carter-Auzenne provides information to NE student Michael Villegas.
Biden announces loan reductions ALEX HOBEN
editor-in-chief alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu
The U.S. government says it will forgive $10,000 of student loan debt and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. On Aug. 24, President Joe Biden outlined the details of this new plan. He spoke about how the cost of schooling has nearly tripled in the past 40 years. He outlined the three-part system that he worked on with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Here’s what my administration is going to do: provide more breathing room for people so they have less burden by student debt and, quite frankly, to fix the system itself, which we came in and we both acknowledged was broken,” Biden said. Individual borrowers who make $125,000 or less per year qualify and for married couples it is $250,000. According to Biden, these cancellations were made with the thought of low-income students in mind. “Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most — working and middleclass people hit especially hard during the pandemic making under $125,000 a year,” Biden said. “You make more than that, you don’t qualify.” Also in the plan is an extension of the payment pause to Dec. 31, cutting monthly payments, lowering the price of college tuition and monitoring the institutions to prevent price hiking in the future. Biden expressed his hope for what this will do for students in debt. “All of this means people can start to finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt to get on top of their rent and their utilities,” he said. “To finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business.” Currently, there is a total of $1.75 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. across both federal and private loans. District director of student financial aid services Samantha Stalnaker believes this will surely have an effect on both TCC and university students. “Students will be able to complete their TCC or University degrees with less debt and or no debt,” she said. “This will allow students to explore additional opportunities after school. Such as considering graduate school, starting a business, saving for future investments and financial flexibility in career choices.”
Stalnaker said how she believes this plan will help the majority of borrowers, especially after the pandemic. She said how those with outstanding loan debt are struggling and this will seriously affect their lives and future endeavors and opportunities, but there is the potential for change. “Individuals will be able to pursue small business opportunities, home ownership, and other life enhancing opportunities,” she said. Stalnaker also said how taking out a student loan isn’t for everyone and the student should weigh the loan against a realistic post-graduate salary expectation. “Financial literacy and understanding your current and future financial goals are key to making the choice to borrow for your education,” she said. For SE student Matthew Jewell, this announcement, while it doesn’t affect him personally, was a shock. “When I first heard about the announcement, I found it to be too good to be true,” he said. “Biden, our current president, has been promising a student loan plan for almost two years, so for it to happen finally surprised me.” But Jewell is skeptical about the logistics of the proposed method and worries about what it can do to the economy. “We can only print so much money until inflation, which it already is, becomes a constant problem,” Jewell said. Universities now are incredibly expensive, and Jewell said people are straying from higher education and looking for other ways to make money. “The cost of everything, especially education, continues to increase, and I find that it will keep increasing,” Jewell said. “Most people are not eligible for FAFSA, and scholarships are hard to find when you do not know what you are looking for.” NE student Curtis Patterson was interested to see the updates about the student loan forgiveness plan and is curious how the government will afford it. “I think it’s interesting to see where that money comes from and how it may inflate other areas,” he said. Patterson said while he doesn’t currently have any student loans, he can see how they’re unavoidable to attend a university in the future. “I think they’re unfortunately a necessity for the average person,” he said. “So they are needed for higher education.”