I n d epe n d e n t
Issue no.
S t u de nt
V o ice
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B o ise
S tate
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22
October 2011
Volume 24
w w w.arbiteronline.com
Boise, Idaho
31
First issue free
Top Stories
It’s a’stormin
An unusually early snowstorm sweeps across the East Coast.
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Still broke
Students have options when it comes to minimizing future debt.
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4
Hey hey hey, goodbye
Photo courtesy Alpha Kappa lambda and alpha xi delta
Alpha Kappa Lambda and Alpha Xi Delta help young Halloween-goers navigate the streets at Warms Springs every year.
Greeks help make Halloween safer Jenn Haskin Journalist
Broncos defeat rival Vandals in final soccer game of the season.
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Weather Today
Rain
58º high
30%
chance of precipitation
Tomorrow
Mostly Sunny
50º high
0%
chance of precipitation
Saturday
Partly Cloudy
52º high
10%
chance of precipitation
What’s Inside News Briefs
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The Arbiter
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Parents are getting some extra help this Halloween from Boise State sorority Alpha Xi Delta and fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda. The two organizations will be collaborating in their yearly tradition of helping young trick-ortreaters cross the street safely. The fourth annual Halloween Watch will take place from 6 to
9:30 p.m. around Warm Springs Avenue. This mandatory event for all 53 members is one they look forward to every year. “Last year was my first year doing the Halloween Watch and I absolutely loved it. It was so much fun,” sophomore Alpha Xi Delta member Stephanie Pyles said. The sorority’s mission is to enrich the lives of each of its members and inspire them to realize their potential through servicebased work. Sorority members are actively
involved in various student programs and work together with other clubs on campus with whom they are also members. “We’re a lot about service ... we’re a sisterhood,” membership vice president Amberine Mowjee said. While the group focuses mostly on philanthropy work raising money for various organizations, The Watch is the number one community event that has become an annual tradition. The Warm Springs area and the surround-
ing intersections can get busy, especially around Halloween. Because it is a trick-or-treating hot spot with no traffic lights and because it’s near a school zone, the Greek orgs were prompted to choose this particular area. Members of AKL and AXD get geared up with bright orange vests, signs and flags to stop cars as they assist with helping the candy-crazed youngsters safely cross the street. “We try to hit up the bigger homes and areas with more traffic,” Amanda Khampha, three-
year member and sorority president, said. “There’s also a school, so we know a lot of the younger children will be walking the streets ... every single year we see more and more people walking around Warm Springs...Usually we have about 3 or 4 people around each cross walk and we wear bright construction vests, we make it very apparent that we’re there to help... every year parents are very, very thankful, a lot of them will come up to us and give us candy and thank us for helping.”
Students find contending with debt hard Cheyenne Perry Journalist The financial strain student loan debt causes has grown substantially in recent years. Whether at Boise State or New York University, students everywhere continue to suffer from the increased prices of a college education. And the problem of student debt has made news in more ways than one this year. From President Barack Obama’s plan to make the loan payback process easier for students to the involvement of student debt in the Occupy movements, acknowledgment of this problem has spread throughout the nation. The Facebook page Occupy Student Debt has this posted in their About Me section—“We are the Occupiers upset about being forced into a lifetime of student loan debt. We are the 99%.” Pictures of people holding signs demanding the government “Forgive Student Debt!” flood the internet. These are only small representations of the growing problems for college students. As tuition rises and debt becomes more prominent, students run out of choices. Though loans inspire caution in many students, college is hard to afford without accepting them. “It’s pretty much the only way I could pay for college,” said senior Corey Smothers, majoring in general studies. Having earned her associate’s degree elsewhere, Smothers came to Boise State to obtain her bachelor’s degree. The 32-year-old
works a full-time job and invests the money she earns into her wedding planned for February. She’s still paying the loan she obtained before she earned her associate’s degree in 2002. When she finished with that degree, she had approximately $8,000 to pay back. Nine years later she still has $1,000 left. Paul Goralski, a Boise State alumnus who graduated in 2007, took out federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans. After graduating, Goralski paid off his loans in slightly more than three years. “At the time I took out the loans, it was at the lowest interest rate environment so … the interest on my loans at the highest was 4.5 percent and some were even at 2 percent, which is extremely low,” Goralski said. According to the Federal Student Aid website, a subsidized, undergraduate loan disbursed anytime from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 has a current interest rate of 4.5 percent. Loans disbursed from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 would have an interest rate of 3.4 percent. An October release from College Board revealed an increase of 8.3 percent for in-state tuition for four-year, public universities and colleges nationwide. According to the Boise State Budget Office, tuition at Boise State has risen from 5 percent to 8 percent. In the simplest form, the total tuition and fees for a fulltime resident, undergraduate at Boise State is $2,783 for the each semester. This price rose a little more than 5 percent from
last year’s. The University of Idaho’s increase in tuition from last year exceeds that of Boise State. From the budget figures located on their website, the tuition for the University of Idaho rose about 8 percent. Many students who have not accepted loans keep them as a last resort. “I wouldn’t be reluctant (to accept a loan), but I’d be hesitant. I’d try everything I could to not (accept a loan),” said Jesse Richards, a freshman health science major. Richards is content with the scholarships she has, and to “try and get a job for anything else.” Is the importance of education worth the financial risk? “It was better to get into debt than not go to school, and if that’s what I had to do to get into school, then it’s worth it,” Andrew Fisher, freshman communication major, said, giving his view plainly. For the latest information on how the government plans to help with student debt, see Obama’s announcement at whitehouse.gov.
mct campus
Do you think that school is worth getting into debt? 1)Absolutely!
2)Starting
not to th anymor ink so e... !
th it r o w t y no
nitel fi e D 3)
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