Parker Tillson – The Razorback Reporter

November 29, 2019November 29, 2019

What Students Should Know About Loans

With tens of millions of students in debt and the debt total climbing, it is important to break down different types of loans and the problems they can cause.

Avery Nihill waited until her senior year to take out a student
loan. Photo by Parker Tillson

By Parker Tillson
The Razorback Reporter

Avery Nihill, a 21-year-old senior studying environmental soil and water sciences, was careful not to get caught in the trap of student debt.

“My parents kind of discouraged me from doing it,” Nihill said. “But this is my last semester and it’s a loan that I took out so that I could finish without any worries.”

Some incoming college students blindly sign up for student loans without realizing what kind of loan they are receiving and the financial issues it can cause. Nihill, a San Antonio, Texas, native, was much more careful, and waited until her senior year to take out a $2,750 subsidized loan in order to pay for school.

Students graduate from the UofA with an average of a little more than $22,000, but Nihill is projected to graduate with far less than that.

There are several loans that students use to pay for college. Loans can differ by number of dollars, interest, whose name the loan is under and more.

Subsidized and unsubsidized loans are the two most common types of direct loans, and the key difference between the two is the timing of interest accrual. Subsidized loans are granted based on financial need. Students must pay off the loan, but not the interest that it has accrued during their time in school.

Unsubsidized loans require students to pay off the loan, including the interest amassed during college, and they are not granted due to financial need. Students are granted these loans more often than subsidized loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Students are assigned a subsidized or unsubsidized loan based on their estimated family contribution, a measure of their family’s financial strength, which is calculated by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

“Most students who are coming to college have enough means through their family to run that estimated family contribution up too high to get a subsidized loan,” said Denise Burford, associate director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at the UofA.

The Parent PLUS loan is the third type of direct loan, which is under the parent’s name and allows the family to take out a larger loan.

Denise Burford, associate director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, at the University of Arkansas. Photo by
Parker Tillson.

As of 2019, more than 42 million loan recipients have racked up almost $1.5 trillion of student loan debt in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Education. More than 34 million of borrowers and $1.2 trillion of the debt is from direct loans, money that comes from the U.S. Department of Education.

The giant debt can be attributed to several things, but one reason is a rise in tuition costs.

Since 2008, in-state tuition has gone up more than 42%, and out-of-state tuition has risen more than 39%, according to data from 381 universities given to U.S. News and World Report.

“School just costs a lot more,” Burford said.

Some students defray the increasing tuition by obtaining grants, money given to students directly from the federal government that students do not have to pay back.

Nihill received a Pell Grant worth a little more than $4,000, which she qualified for because she comes from a family of seven and demonstrated financial need.

“It helped a lot my freshman year,” Nihill said. “We didn’t know if I would be able to stay here because I’m from out-of-state and school is expensive, but because I got the Pell grant I was able to come back.”

Pell Grants are given to students who have an estimated family contribution of less than $6,000, according to Burford. The amount you receive depends on your school, your status as a student, and how long you plan to stay.

Students can also receive a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), which is worth less than a Pell grant. The UofA disburses more than $1 million more than any other Arkansas school in FSEOG grants.

November 13, 2019November 13, 2019

CROSSWALKS

Safety Officials Warn Pedestrians and Drivers to Keep Their Heads Up

By Parker Tillson
The Razorback Reporter

After a car collided with a bicyclist on campus and a pedestrian was hit by a car on College Avenue within a week in late September, Fayetteville police Sgt. Anthony Murphy warned drivers and pedestrians to stay off of their phones when driving and walking across the street.

The 95 crosswalks on campus can get crowded with the more than 27,600 students enrolled at the UofA. With so many people using the crosswalks, it’s important that pedestrians and drivers pay attention at all times, Murphy and others in safety enforcement said.

About 85% of college students own smartphones, according to a 2015 study by Pearson. Precisely 94% of teen drivers acknowledged the dangers of texting and driving, even though 35% of them admitted to doing it anyway, according to AAA.

“University initiatives can only promote safe practices,” UA Police Capt. Gary Crain said. “It is up to individuals to actually embrace and enact safe practices.”

Almost 3,200 people were killed by distracted drivers in 2017, according to the United States Department of Transportation. Cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million car crashes a year – one of every four car accidents in the United States – according to the National Safety Council.

“People need to take their personal safety into account and get off their phones,” Murphy said. “Whether they’re in the car or they’re walking.”

Drivers under age 20 have the highest incidence of distraction-related fatal crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A UA freshman student was hit by a car in February 2019 on Garland Avenue, outside of the Northwest Quad dorms. The 18-year-old sustained injuries that led to her death in the hospital two days later.

“After seeing that, that’s when I really knew that we had to do something,” said Lexi Robertson, ASG director of Student Safety. “We should always be proactive instead of reactive.”

The driver, a 17-year-old girl who was visiting the campus, was on her phone when she collided with the student. She received two citations: failure to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, and use of a handheld device while driving.

“It’s just an awful thing,” Murphy said. “A young lady and a young person that was driving the car, it’s just a tragedy on both sides and totally preventable accidents every time.”

In Arkansas, it is illegal to use a cell phone in a school zone unless using hands-free technology or reporting an emergency and the driver must be older than 21. The same law should apply on college campuses, Robertson said.

“I think we should always be adamant about not being on our phones while we’re driving,” Robertson said. “And I will preach that until the end of days.”

Distracted driving is a deadly issue, but what may not be talked about as much is cell phone use while walking. Pedestrians who cross a busy street with their heads buried in a phone put themselves at the mercy of drivers.

“It’s like a perfect storm.” Murphy said. “Two things line up; the person walking isn’t paying attention and the person driving isn’t paying attention.”

All of the crosswalks at the UofA require drivers to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. The pedestrians have the right-of-way, but students can sometimes abuse this privilege.

“I know on the UofA campus I see people walk out in front of cars all the time.” Murphy said. “They

don’t even wait for the car to stop. They just expect them to stop.”

The UofA participated in its 16th annual Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day on Oct. 9, when volunteers were stationed at busy crosswalks around campus to instill safe practices for drivers and pedestrians. Volunteers stressed that drivers should always stop for pedestrians, but pedestrians also should look up from their phones and make eye-contact with drivers before crossing the street.

Despite national efforts to encourage safe driving, almost 6,000 pedestrians were killed by cars in both 2016 and 2017, according to the Governors’ Highway Safety Association.

“We’re going to have accidents if we don’t make solid change happen,” Roberston said.

October 9, 2019October 24, 2019

Holcombe Hall Incident Still Under Investigation

A reported rape incident that happened on campus in September is still under investigation by UAPD. No further details have been disclosed.

A reported rape in a dorm room Sept. 2 triggered a RazAlert at the UofA. A later report showed details different from the original account.

The victim reported the rape at 1:37 a.m. Monday in Holcombe Hall on Garland Avenue, when she said that a stranger came into her room and assaulted her, UA Police Capt. Gary Crain said.

The next day, the victim of the alleged assault said she was acquainted with the accused, and that the perpetrator was invited in to the dorm room by the victim, Crain said.

UAPD is investigating the case, but no further details have been disclosed.

Crain encouraged students to take safety precautions such as locking bedroom and car doors to reduce the possibility of crimes.

Rape is committed by someone the victim knows 80 percent of the time, according to rainn.org, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

Sex crimes are a common issue at universities, according to data. In fact, one in five women in college experience sexual assault, and students are at a higher risk of sexual assault in the first few months of their first and second semesters of college, according to womenshealth.gov, an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

These first few months are referred to as the RedZone, according to thetab.com, a news website with articles from students at top universities. After gathering more than 800 reports of rape and sexual assault cases from crime logs at 12 colleges, the data showed that more than 32 percent of sex crimes happened from September to November.

Most new students live in dorm rooms during their first year of college, and most are coed, where boys and girls are in close proximity. The results of the same study from thetab.com showed that 46.9 percent of the 800 cases from those universities occurred in freshman dorms.