Author: Kirsten Baird

Kirsten Baird was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She moved to Fayetteville, AR three years ago to begin her studies at the University of Arkansas. This semester, she is involved in the Digital Media Lab. She will be covering stories and events related to the College of Education and Health Professions for the Razorback Reporter.
Posted on

Female Face Higher Student Loan Debt Than Men in Arkansas

Female Student Loan Debt Exceeds Male Debt in Arkansas

Throughout Arkansas, females graduate from college with more student debt than men. Lack of scholarships and the gender pay gap contribute to this problem.

By Kirsten Baird, Coleman Bonner and Abby Zimmardi
The Razorback Reporter

Female students graduate from college with an average $1,165 more  student loan debt than male students within colleges and universities in Arkansas, according to an analysis of 2016-17 federal student loan data.

Priscilla DuFresne is paying for college on her own, so she is taking out the maximum amount of loans possible each year. Photo by Abby Zimmardi

College Scorecard, U.S. Department of Education database, showed the median debt for female college graduates was an average $10,029 in 2016-17 versus $8,864 for male graduates in Arkansas.

The gap between female and male student loan debt held true for the 2015-16 academic year, when female graduates faced an average $1,333 in more debt than male students, according to College Scorecard.

The reality of today’s competitive workforce is that a degree is required for almost every career, and many studies show that the pay gap between males and females still exists. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women only made 49% of what men earned over a 15 year time span. Thus, upon graduation, it is hard for females to pay off their loans quickly.
 
“I just know of a lot of guys who have their entire school paid for by going here and I don’t know of many girls really,” said Madison Spyres, a fifth-year music education and exercise science major at the UofA. “It’s a little strange that females don’t have more scholarships.” 
Spyres, 22, has been taking out loans since her sophomore year, she said. The first semester she took out $2,000 and every year after that she has taken out $7,500.
 
Priscilla DuFresne, a University of Arkansas junior who is majoring in graphic design, has felt the impact of student loans. DuFresne, who is paying for college on her own, said she needs to take out the maximum amount of loans possible each year in order to pay for school.
 
“Last year I had around $13,000 but I know I had to take out loans this year so it’s probably around $20,000,” DuFresne, 20, said. In addition to borrowing loans for tuition, DuFresne said she uses loans in order to pay for art supplies for classes.

Top 10 schools where female student debt exceeds male student debt

Luke Molina, a Dallas resident and senior business student at the UofA, faces large college expenses since he pays out-of-state tuition. However, Molina says he is confident in his ability to pay off the loans following his graduation because of the resources and networking he’s acquired in his time in school.

“It was a little hard to decide to take out loans,” Molina, 21, said. “But I had to do what I had to do, it was either that or go home.” 

Top 10 schools with higher male student loan debt


Kristie Spielmaker, a UA alumni and current Director of Supply Chain Flow Performance at Walmart, had an academic trajectory that was different from the usual trend. She started attending the university after she was already married and had children.
 
Spielmaker said she received about $4,000 per year from the UofA, a total of $10,000 over the course of two years through the Brandon Burlsworth scholarship, and about an additional $2,000 per year through Walton College. This totaled about $34,000 from 2008-2012.

“I had a lot of student loans, as we used them for living expenses since we had a family and I was not earning an income while in school,” Spielmaker said. Even now, with a good job and good scholarships, Spielmaker still has about $20,000 worth of student loans to pay off.


Posted on

SOTHERAPY16: UA Occupational Therapy Program to Launch in January 2020

UA Occupational Therapy Program to Launch in January 2020

COEHP is starting an occupational therapy program in partnership with UAMS. Along with new curriculum and staff, the department remodeled a house which will be used for lectures and training.

By Kirsten Baird
The Razorback Reporter

UA Occupational Therapy house provides real-life training for students. Photo by Kirsten Baird

The UA faculty of the Occupational Therapy clinical doctorate program will welcome students in January 2020, the program director said. The program will use the newly renovated O.T. house, as well as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus on College Avenue.

This will be the first joint program between the UofA and UAMS, director Sherry Muir said. Fran Hagstrom, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication science and disorders got the program approved by the state Legislature and recruited Muir as program director, a university representative said.

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education currently accredits over 570  O.T. programs within the United States, four of which are located in Arkansas, according to the American Occupational Therapy Association. The UofA currently stands at candidacy status, but in order for students to take the national exam, they must graduate from an accredited program, Muir said. 

In the third year of the program, the ACOTE will visit the campus, interview students and faculty, and determine whether the program can receive accreditation status.

Meanwhile, renovations on the occupational therapy house were completed in June, and the 7,000 square feet of lab space at UAMS was completed October 1, Muir said.

The O.T. house has a variety of functions. It can be used for small seminar classes, lectures, and about 50 percent of hands-on active learning, Muir said.

“This house was designed to be a real home and not handicap accessible,” Muir said. “It’s on a hill, it has bad sidewalks that are broken, it has stairs.” Muir said that the faculty and staff believe that if students are to truly be problem solvers, it is important for them to understand that patients go home from an injury to a real home.

Thus, the faculty and staff within the department aim to build a program that instills both this view within their students and changes the way people view occupational therapy as a field.

When it comes to occupational therapy, people “have either never heard of it, or they have a very tiny limited view of it,” Muir said. Occupational therapy requires knowing the needs, wants, and daily requirements of an individual, which vary with age.

Occupational therapy “is very broad, and our training is very broad so that makes it hard for people to understand,” Muir said. “And I think we, as a profession, are significantly at fault because we haven’t been able to clearly articulate what we do.”

“We can build a very different kind of program, and I think we have,” Muir said. “I think it is highly unusual in that we did a backwards design for the entire curriculum.”

“We began at the end, but it is also fully integrated,” Muir said. “If our courses are integrated, the student’s knowledge will be more holistic and you won’t think of yourself as a pediatric therapist or an adult therapist. You will think of yourself as an occupational therapist.”

Muir hired faculty members who are innovative thinkers, do unusual types of practice, and are pioneers within their area. She hopes that the design of the O.T. program will develop students that expand the scope of their practice and be leaders in their own areas.

Establishing this program also aids in “making degree programs more robust, helping to highlight the fact that one area cannot thrive without some understanding of the other,” research assistant Charlene Reid said. “There needs to be greater collaboration among the various departments to better reflect the importance and need for each other in our respective fields.”

The new faculty and staff within the OT Program already are starting on a trajectory toward redefining how Occupational Therapy is viewed as a field, Muir said.

“I have a passion for this profession, and I believe that we are underutilized, and I believe that we are the missing link in many social crises like mental health issues, like the opioid addiction, like this exponentially increasing rise in young people’s anxiety and depression,” Muir said.

Muir’s biggest desire is for this integrated curriculum to prepare students to meet the diverse needs of society. She thinks that occupational therapy can have an impact on the world if they are fully utilized.

“I want our students to feel empowered to go out there and forge new paths and make a difference, not only in our country, but maybe in the world,” Muir said.