Depression is a period of general economic decline, also defined as a decline in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for two or more continuous quarters. The students of El Paso are economically being affected due to this current recession. This economic down trod is effecting not only the students but also the El Paso community. If we don’t solve this problem there's a possibility that less and less students well be able to afford going to school at UTEP.
Since 1994, more than 30,000 jobs have left El Paso, which has greatly affected the community making it harder for people of El Paso to afford College expenses. According to the UTEP records the average number of students that enroll to UTEP is 20,154 students. The average amounts of students that enroll in UTEP who are residents in El Paso are 16,705, which mean that at least 80% of the students who are enrolled at El Paso are residents. (According to Beatriz Castaneda, Writer for Prospector, she says that According National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers expect to hire 7 percent fewer graduates from colleges in the class of 2010 than they hired from the class of 2009. The reason why so many employers are cutting back college hiring is directly related to the weak economy). Now if the graduates from college are having trouble getting jobs, it must be a lot harder for students and even their parents to get jobs to pay for college expenses while attending. Now it’s not like college expenses are going to decrease any time soon, if anything the tuition will only continue to increase because of the demand for money, making students have to pay more for books, tuition, and transportation to and from classes. According to the Prospector titled: Students prepare to spend on textbooks, writer Natalia Quiroz interviewed Raul Mariscal, (manager for Textbook Express, said he has seen a decline in book sales due to the economy.) This is making it harder for students to pass or even want to register for classes. Now, according Jorge Gomez a writer of the Prospector titled: Graduation rates at UTEP, a slow train to the future, (he states that among the UT System's nine universities, UTEP has the lowest graduation rate within the last six years, this is corresponding to a 2007 report by the UT System Office of Academic Affairs and Office of Institutional Studies and Policy Analysis).This Writer (Jorge Gomez) also states that in 2007 we had surpassed the 20,000 student enrollment mark, 4,000 of these are incoming freshmen, this is where it gets interesting. According to the statics out of those 4,000 students, amazing only 80 will graduate in 4 years. This sounds ridiculous, there is no possible way that 3,920 student’s couldn’t graduate in 4 years just because they couldn’t hack it in college. So the only logical reason is they are trying to juggle school, work, and there family all at once, which makes this very complicated.
Alright let’s make it a little interesting, here is a little example to give somewhat of an idea of the economic struggle occurring in El Paso (I assure you these people are fake).Now, Barry Mcflunkerton lives on the east side of El Paso with his son Ryan (now with the divorce rate climbing all over the united states, this is probably the most ideal example for the society that we live in now), Ryan has graduated from El Paso high and is planning on going to college at UTEP. In order for Ryan to graduate in his planned time of 4 years, he will have to pay close to 8,000 dollars a year for tuition including books, traveling expenses (to UTEP and back to his home), and of course other school supplies. This is going to cost 1/5 of his father’s income every year, since according to ((www.City-Data.com) the average adjusted gross Income (AGI) in 2004 is $37,518).Now this has most likely gone do to the economic recession we are currently in. This is making it a little difficult for Ryan’s father to pay for his son to attend UTEP as a full-time student. And you can’t forget the current living expenses he and his son already have to pay off. So how similar problems like this get solved in economic state that we are in now days?
There’s couple of ways to solve or fix this issue or issues similar to this, for instance two programs that are already being used by school is the Student Financial Aid and the Student Loan programs. But what about the people who can’t afford taking student loans, and the ones who are ineligible for financial aid, are they supposed to just give up their college dreams? According to Jose Martinez, also a writer for the prospector titled: Additional student fees may fund scholarships; (He states that The UTEP’s Student Government Association and state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of District-29(El Paso) are working on passing a bill In the Texas Legislature that will help fund scholarships. This bill will create a student benefit scholarship funded by the students, charging each student $1 per credit hour). This seems like a brilliant idea, each student pitching an average of 8 to 12 dollars per semester will add up to an estimated guess of 200,000 per year. This bill can be very effective or a disaster depending on whether students can continue to pass classes and not have to repeat. A couple other ways we can fix this economic depression effecting El Paso Students is that we could consult with the student government to help reduce book prices, school supplies, and other school expenses. Something that I really hope gets changed to help better the recession that is affecting the El Paso students is the education cost increase. According to Juan Manuel Ramirez IV, a writer of the prospector titled: Enrollment up despite economy, (he states that the Texas state Legislature voted to deregulate tuition, which has been steadily rising since 2003. This is giving the schools the right to regulate on how much to charge their students for tuition). This can be good, but in order to fix this economic problem the choice should be give to the state to decide on how much each schools tuition should cost based on the average adjusted gross Income (AGI) in that particular city. Although this will affectively work it might cause some schools to cut down on school expenses causing some teacher to lose their jobs which we don’t want. There’s is also another possible idea that the school can start a program for students to loan money from the school and in return complete various amounts of community service hours for the University. (Examples such as, Food drive for welfare and homeless people, Trash clean-up around the Campus, and tutor services at the library for students (if qualified depending on GPA).
In conclusion this economic recession is affecting everyone very hard, and it’s going to be tough for our society to bounce back from the great debt we are in. The best idea is to keep on pushing threw, otherwise less and less students well be able to afford going to school at UTEP, which could possibly lead to a series of teachers being laid off. The best bet is to find a suitable program that works best for the UTEP community. It could possibly be the only solution to the debacle we are in.
Work Cited
· http://www.utepprospector.com/2.7382/enrollment-up-despite-economy-1.1035367 , By Juan Manuel Ramirez IV, Published: Tuesday, April 14, 2009, Updated: Monday, January 18, 2010 10:01
