Wayne State University Tuition Increase Of 8.9 Percent Approved Despite State Funding Cap. Huffington Post, 26 Jun 2013. Web. 6 Mar 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/wayne-state-tuition-increase-detroit_n_3505058.html
Summary: In 2013, Wayne State University Board of Governors decided to increase the tuition by 8.9 percent. This increase has had a big impact on the school and its students. According to the Detroit News, “The increase is the steepest since 2008.” In 2013, Wayne State has been recognized as the only school to have less than a 1 percent average state funding increase. This kind of information has had alarming affects in the school causing many questions to arise. One question was if student would still be able to come to Wayne State with the trends that have been going on. In this article, we are also given information on other universities in Michigan and how much their tuition has increased. The Detroit News states “Earlier this month, the University of Michigan approved a 1.1 percent increase for in-state undergraduate tuition at its Ann Arbor campus, the smallest increase since 1985. Michigan State University approved a 1.9 percent increase for in-state freshmen and sophomores and a 3.6 percent increase for in-state juniors and seniors.” This clearly shows that Wayne States tuition increase is far higher than other Michigan University rate and does not compare.
Application: This website will be useful when writing our project 3 because it provides us with information for why university students are in debt. We can incorporate what has happened to Wayne State’s tuition increase to the number of students facing student loan debt. Since our proposal is about decreasing the amount of general education courses, we can rid some of the unnecessary courses so students aren’t paying too high of a tuition in turn decreasing their student loan debt.
Jesse , David. Government books $41.3 billion in student loan profits. USA Today, 25 Nov 2013. Web. 6 Mar 2014. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/25/federal-student-loan-profit/3696009/>.
Summary: This article discusses the growing loan debt for students and graduates. “It is a burden which is affecting, for example, the ability of many young people to buy a first home, affecting other purchasing decisions they might make, affecting obviously their overall financial condition,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a conference earlier this month. In the article we are introduced to a student named Kelly Wilk who is a 2010 graduate from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She states that her loans have a huge impact on her since she graduated with $25,000 in debt of federal loans and has over $22,000 to continue to pay off with a monthly payment of $281. She also went on to explain how it’s a challenge to find the money to pay this loan off since she was unable to find a full-time employment after graduating. This article also says that the federal government is gaining $175 billion off students loans which in turn has made students upset with the government. “Instead of making a profit on student loans, why doesn’t the government try to help out the millions of students who are struggling financially and at the very least, lower the interest rates?” Wilk says.
Application: We can incorporate this article into our Project because this is yet another article that shows how much of an impact loans have on the university students. Loans also have an impact on whether or not a student wants to continue education after high school at the university level. On top of student loans, every day necessities such as food, car payments, and living expenses pose struggles for an average college student. Since there are financial struggles that arise with a university education, future students that have the ability to make a huge impact on big careers sometimes are forced to choose a much cheaper career route.
French, Ron. Wayne State University: In a black-majority city, but one of the worst at graduating African-Americans. Bridge Magazine, 8 february 2012. Web. 6 Mar 2014. <http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/02/at_wayne_st_easy_to_get_in_dif.html>.
Summary: In this article, journalist Ron French discusses Wayne State’s graduation gap among white students and black students. According to the article, Wayne Sate is located in America’s largest black-majority city but only one out of ten black students who go to Wayne earn a degree within six years of attending the school. French also points out that “43.5 percent of white students at Wayne earn a degree within six years and only 9.5 percent of black students.” French explains that having this graduation gap means that the city of Detroit doesn’t have a “economic competitiveness which depends on an educated work force.” French also interviews Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit who says that “Detroit can’t grow by importing a bunch of college grads and saying we don’t give a damn about our city…We need to be able to get degrees into the hands of the minority of Detroit.” Ron French points out the challenges that Wayne faces like having students who are twice as poor; five times as many students are part time and often working full-time jobs or also have children. Also, Wayne students have a significantly lower median ACT scores then other colleges. But, French argues and gives different examples of colleges with the same statistics and challenges as Wayne but they have a significantly lower graduation gap between their students. He also gives examples of how these other colleges are closing the graduation gap for example, focusing on students at an early stage and often or creating summer programs to help prepare children for college. At the end of article French asks Allan Gilmour, President of Wayne State about the solutions Wayne State is exploring. Gilmour tells him that they are undergoing a “culture shift” and they are going to focus more on the care of its students.
Application: This article supports our topic because students have so many prerequisites in college and some of the courses can be challenging but have nothing to do with the person’s desired major. Taking these courses are time consuming, cost tuition and can be challenging. If the school focused less on prerequisites and more on courses for students’ majors then more black students would have money to continue their education and time to work towards their degree. I think it’s also important to take note from other college that deal with the same problems and start investing money in programs for high school children in the Detroit Public Schools. I also want to explore the tools we do have a school for being successful in our courses like SI teachers, teach assistants in class, peer mentors, successes center which offers tutoring and also different seminars like the freshman success ones.
Education Spending Per Student by State. GOVERNING; The States and Localities. Web. 6 Mar 2014. <http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html>.
Summary: This source gives a dropdown menu, within it I chose Michigan to see those statistics from the Census Bureu. The data mirrors that of the previous source, http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/18711. It’s a chart that juxtaposes revenues per pupil with spending per pupil. The bar graphs displayed show that they’re correlative. They also show that as spending per pupil goes up, so do revenues. Spending and revenue, both, have grown upon each year since 2006.
Application: We will be using this source to show that when students have money spent on them they tend to do better and that the same is true of higher education. Increasing the amount that students have to pay for their tuition and other college expenses only discourages them and distracts them from their school work. As a result, they are sentenced to a poor grade. Anecdotal evidence goes to show that some students may work as many as 3 separate jobs just to get by. This only adds to their strain and decreases their intellectual efficiency. If the government is willing to spend money on K-12 they should also invest in higher education and the innovations that may bring the uplifting of society as a whole.
Wayne State University. 2013. General Education Requirements . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bulletins.wayne.edu/Past/ubk%2005-07-output/lib2.html. [Accessed 17 March 14
Summary: According to Wayne State University’s undergraduate degree requirement, students must fulfill general education requirements that are composed of Competency requirements, University Group requirements plus the additional required courses for each specific discipline. For example, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University Group Requirements include one course each from: Physical Science, Life Science, Laboratory, Historical Studies, American Society, Basic Social Science, Visual & Performing Arts, Philosophy, and Foreign Culture. Competency requirements are 3 English Writing courses; pass each of Mathematics, oral communication, computer literacy, and critical thinking. Additionally, the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences require 4 more courses: one additional natural science, additional basic social science, civilization, and 3 semesters of foreign language.
Application: This means for a student to graduate with an undergraduate degree in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a minimum of 21 courses have to be taken and passed (with the exception of 3 that have a choice of being tested to waive) just to meet non-major courses. These equate to at least 63-84 credit hours (each course is 3-4 credits), plus the required courses for major and pre-professional prerequisites, which easily exceed 140? credits just to bear the minimum, not to mention the prerequisite courses taken in order to be placed into these levels. For students who wish to graduate with Honors, additional possibly over 24? Credits will be supplemented to this list. This evidence is our core supporting document that our school has too many non-degree related course requirement that postpone undergraduate students graduating within 6 years with overwhelming curriculums plus huge financial burdens. This also explains low retention rate as many students are turned away because of these extra courses that we have to commit to. With all these general education requirements that take over more than half of our whole curriculum, students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are not well prepared for their majors or career choices for the future.
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