Pell Grant Covers Only Part of School Bill for Low-Income Students

With nearly 50% of all UA students needing financial aid, the UA scholarship budget is projected to increase by $5 million in the coming academic year.

By Hanna Ellington, Sophie Neubaum, and Kate Duby

Some in-state Pell Grant recipients graduate with little to no debt from the UofA, while others are not so fortunate. The average debt for UA students receiving Pell Grants is $16,000, compared to the median debt of $12,040 for students not receiving them, according to 2016-17 data from the U.S. Department of Education.

Max McKeown, a senior from Monticello majoring in horticultural science, receives the maximum Pell Grant amount of $6,195, which covers 75% of his tuition, he said. With the grant, McKeown will graduate with low to zero debt.

“The Pell Grant has helped a lot, because I get the full amount of it, so that takes away a big chunk of my tuition,” McKeown said.

UA senior Max McKeown, pictured on-campus. Photo by Kate Duby

Pell Grants are federal grants that students typically do not have to repay, according to the Department of Education. They are awarded to students who demonstrate great financial need. Nearly 20% of undergraduate UA students received Pell Grants in 2017-18, according to College Navigator data.

McKeown, 20, lives off campus, making tuition his only major expense under the grant, he said.

Being a Pell Grant recipient directly influenced McKeown’s decision to attend the UofA, and he thinks attending the flagship university has given him a higher quality education than he would receive at another Arkansas institution, he said.

However, the median debt for UA students receiving Pell Grants is higher than that of students not receiving them, putting into question the measurable impact of the grant.

The maximum grant amount awarded is $6,195 for the 2019-2020 award year, according to the Pell Grant website. Tuition for in-state UA students for 2019-20 is $7,568, according to the UofA’s cost of attendance, with tuition, housing and other fees totaling $26,144.

“[The maximum grant] is a national number, and it’s not enough for a student to come to college,” said Phillip Blevins, director of financial aid.

In addition to Pell Grants, students can take out federal loans, participate in work-study, be awarded a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant or be entered in the Arkansas Academic Challenge to help pay for college, Blevins said.

Director of Financial Aid Phillip Blevins, pictured in his office in Silas H. Hunt Hall. Photo by Hanna Ellington

The nearly $4,000 discrepancy between the accumulated debts of Pell recipients and non-recipients is not surprising to Suzanne McCray, UA vice provost for enrollment. Students who have Pell Grants still can have significant personal expenses, and so they will take out loans to cover transportation and other personal items, she said.

For other in-state recipients, debt is unavoidable even with a Pell Grant and the addition of scholarships and other financial aid.

UA junior and Pell Grant recipient Billy Cook expects to accumulate about $15,000 in debt for his undergraduate degree in history and political science.

Cook, 21, from Gravette, said he received other financial aid along with the Pell Grant, including the scholarship lottery, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and other smaller scholarships.

“I think the one that made the most impact was of course the Pell Grant, because it’s a fairly large sum of money in terms of a scholarship or a grant. It’s made a good difference compared to the other ones,” Cook said.

UA junior Billy Cook, pictured in the on-campus Starbucks. Photo by Sophie Neubaum

Nearly 55 percent of all undergraduate UA students are receiving grants or scholarships, according to 2017-18 College Navigator data. For the upcoming academic year, $5 million is being added to the scholarship budget for freshman and other students, Blevins said.

The UofA chancellor’s decision to put $5 million into the scholarship budget shows there is a focus on financial need of students, McCray said.

Arkansas ranks 5th in nationwide poverty, with approximately 17.2% of residents living below the poverty line in 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We’re shooting for 85% of our budget going to in-state students. It’s normally a little more than that,” Blevins said. “The motivation was to make college more accessible for Arkansas students.”

In order to receive a Pell Grant, students must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The application opens Oct. 1 for the upcoming academic year, and students should complete the FAFSA by Dec. 1, McCray said.

November 15, 2019December 2, 2019

Loan Defaults

Student Loan Defaults Have Serious Consequences

UofA graduate student Whitney King unexpectedly found her student loan in default during the transition from Jonesboro to Fayetteville. Photo by Abbi Ross

By Abbi Ross, Brooke Borgognoni and Emily Thompson
The Razorback Reporter

Whitney King had a plan. She had just graduated from Arkansas State University with her bachelors’ degree in journalism and was accepted into a masters program at the University of Arkansas.

She made the move from Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Fayetteville and thought she was set. Then she got an email on August 15 saying that a payment was overdue by 11 days — a loan she thought she would not have to start paying back until after she graduated with her masters’ degree.

King, 24, said she thinks there needs to be more information given to a borrower beforehand.

“I hadn’t taken out a loan before, so I think it would be beneficial to know the ins and outs,” King said. “It was a lot of information thrown at me on that day.

Out of all Arkansas college students that graduated between 2015 and 2017, on average, 14 percent defaulted on their student loans. The average amount of debt a student graduated school with between those two years was $14,000.

Borrowers default for various reasons, including divorce, health problems and not finishing school, Joel Doelger, Director of Community Development and Housing Counseling for the non-profit Credit Counseling of Arkansas. “There is no typical reason,” he said. A loan is considered in default after a borrower goes 270 days without making payments, Deolger said.

King said she enrolled in her graduate courses in May and thought the loan would automatically defer until after she graduated with her masters. King then got a letter informing her that loan was in default in August and quickly began the process of getting it deferred. After proving her enrollment, King is now considered to be out of default.

Todd Hertzberg, a Fayetteville-based bankruptcy attorney, said about half of his clients have student loans with some loans reaching up to $350,000.

Hertzberg urges his clients to get out of default as soon as possible, even if they plan on filing for bankruptcy. Penalties for defaulting on student loans can be severe. Unlike other creditors, student loan providers only have to send one notice before they can have employers garnish wages, meaning loan payments are forcibly taken from a paycheck. Interest rates on loans in default can spike as high as 30 percent.

There are few options for relief for those struggling to pay down student loans.

Student loans are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, unless they pose an undue hardship. This means that even if other debt is waived through bankruptcy, student loans are not except in rare cases, Hertzberg said.

“There has been a myriad of court decisions around the country as to what constitutes undue hardship and the courts have not opened the doors very wide,” Hertzberg said. “It has been narrowed to nearly complete physical disability.”

Some undergraduates who took out loans are nervous about paying them off in the future.

Rachel Thrash, a junior advertising and public relations major at the University of Arkansas said she worries about balancing living expenses and student loan payments after graduation. She will have to begin repaying her loan six months after she graduates.

“After college, I’m going to have to start paying on an apartment and a car and all these different things and then on top of that also paying for student loans,” Thrash said.

Options for those in default are limited. A defaulted loan will be transferred from the original bank or loan servicer to a collection agency, Doelger said. Two options for borrowers after defaulting are rehabilitation and reconsolidation.

**Joel Doelger of Credit Counseling of Arkansas helps resolve student loan and debt problems. Photo by Abbi Ross**

For rehabilitation, a borrower will contact the collection agency and ask for a rehabilitation plan where a payment amount is determined, The borrower will need to make nine payments in 10 months to get out of default, Doelger said.

If a borrower chooses rehabilitation they can have the default mark removed their credit report, Doelger said.

If a borrower has more than one loan, they can consolidate them, Doelger said. The consolidation process can take borrower out of default in one to two months, a quicker option that rehabilitation, Doelger said.

It also offers a wider range of payment options, but consolidation does not allow the default mark to be removed from credit scores, Doelger said. Income-driven plans are available for both options, Doelger said.

Some students do not understand the full implications of taking out student loans and the repayment process, he said.

“I think it’s human nature to be more aware of what’s going on today than what’s going to happen six years down the line when loans are going to be payable,” Doelger said.

Noel Morris, UA Financial Literacy Professor

Noel Morris, a finance professor at the Sam Walton College of Business at the UofA, said students need to approach student loans like any other loan.

“It has the same impact as if you stop paying for your car or you stop paying for your house,” said Morris. “They cannot repossess it like they would a car, but it will not go away. It will hurt your credit for about seven years.”

November 14, 2019December 3, 2019

Gender_Inequities

Women Face Higher Student Loan Debt, Workplace Challenges

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

The average female student loan debt in Arkansas is $10,051, which is about $1,250 more than the average male student debt in 2016-17, according to a College Scorecard study, a U.S. Department of Education database.

Juliet Sittler, a UofA junior majoring in accounting, has around $19,000 in student loans from her first three years of college, she said. She intends on taking out more loans for graduate school and hopes to pay them off in less than five years.

Sittler, 20, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said she’s entering a field dominated by men. “I would say that I’m not the only female, but there are way more guys than girls in all my classes,” Sittler said. Enrollment in the Walton College of Business in 2017 was 64% male and 35% female, according to the UofA Student Degree, Enrollment and Demographics.

On top of the gender disparity in student loans, some female students are entering professions with a significant gender imbalance, and they may not be paid as much as their male counterparts.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the top male-dominated fields are civil engineering, which is 14% female; chemical engineering, 18% female; and electrical engineering, 9% female. In each of these fields, women earn only about 89% of what men do, according to a study by the Department of Labor.

Summer Smith, a junior biomedical engineering student, said she is aware of her place as a minority within her field, yet she feels it could be used as an advantage.

“I think it’s kind of cool because you get a lot of different opportunities that women that are in a female-dominated field don’t have,” Smith, 20, from St. Louis said. “Since people are looking for women engineers, I think it really makes me stand out.” According to the UA Office of the Registrar, the engineering student body is 76% male and 24% female.

UA senior Katharine Jovicich, 23, from Dallas, who is majoring in chemical engineering, said she has acquired over $100,000 in student loan debt. Jovicich will be paying off her loans with no help from her family, besides living at home rent free, she said.

“My goal is three years, but I think I could pay the minimum payment and it goes maybe 10-20 years,” Jovicich said. “But I just want to be out of it and so I will live very simply and still at home and get all of that paid off.”

The gender imbalance in engineering is obvious even to the men. “In school, engineering is definitely male-dominated. I’d say at least 80% male, and in certain disciplines it was even more so,” said Jeremey Porterfield, 32, from Bryant, Arkansas. “You feel it in the culture of the company.”

Portfield graduated from the UofA with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and was awarded about $4,000 in scholarships during his time on the Fayetteville campus. He currently works as a project manager for Garver Engineers, but is still paying off his $40,000 in student loans.

November 14, 2019December 3, 2019

First-Generation Students Juggle Multiple Jobs to Pay for College

Students at the UofA have the option to be involved in the Federal Work-Study program, but many students also seek employment off campus due to unawareness of the program or for opportunities that interest them more. Specifically, first-generation students have to learn to balance school and work in order to provide for themselves. Their education comes at a cost as they accumulate student loan debt that they will eventually be responsible for paying off.

By Mary Hennigan, Mary Fracchia and Elena Ramirez
The Razorback Reporter

Education comes at a cost to first-generation students at the University of Arkansas. Some have multiple jobs to make ends meet, while others skip meals or live off granola bars for a couple of days each week.

Jordie Lao is an example of a student who had to skip meals. Lao, a 20-year-old from Dallas, keeps her weekly food budget around $30. The UofA junior finds the sacrifice worth it and is proud to be a first-generation student. She is motivated by her mother, who regrets not attending college.

“Money is the biggest worry I have because there is never enough,” Lao said.

Jordie Lao, a junior at the UofA, is employed at E.Leigh’s Contemporary Boutique on Dickson Street to help pay for outside costs
like her car payment and groceries. She will graduate with nearly $50,000 in student loan debt. Photo by Mary Fracchia

The Federal Work-Study program helps low-income students pay for their tuition by providing part-time jobs on or off campus while enrolled, according to the Federal Student Aid website. The University of Arkansas received more than $1.2 million to support the program for the 2019-2020 academic year.

There are around 450 Federal Work-Study jobs available at the UofA, but some first-generation students seek multiple jobs from outside employment, according to the UA Office of Financial Aid.

Joshua Coonfield, a junior at the UofA studying psychology, started the work-study program this semester. The 20-year-old from Garfield, Arkansas, works an average of 12-15 hours a week as an ambassador for The Center for Learning and Student Success.

Off-campus, he is employed as a line prep-cook at Southern Food Company and as a customer service supervisor at Burlington Coat Factory. Even with the three jobs to keep him afloat, Coonfield has collected nearly $8,000 of federal student loan debt, he said.

“None of my work-study goes toward my tuition,” he said. “What work-study goes to is just my personal things like books, things for school supplies.”

Joshua Coonfield , a junior at the UofA, is working three jobs to keep him afloat. He has $8,000 in student loan debt and has made it a goal to stay below $14,000 by graduation. Photo by Elena Ramirez

The average first-generation student loan debt at the UofA is $14,072, according to College Scorecard, a U.S. Department of Education database. Coonfield has made it a goal to be below $14,000 in student loans.

Coonfield is among the 360 work-study students employed part-time at the UofA. Students can earn no more than $3,000 an academic year. These earnings are paid to a student through direct deposit, a debit card system, or by having a check mailed to the student, said Erin Wooldridge, Federal Work-Study coordinator.

Wooldridge has never seen all of the positions filled during the last four years she has worked as coordinator.

“I don’t feel like I have done my part to promote work study as best as I could,” she said. Some employers don’t understand how to accommodate a student’s school schedule. “I try to emphasize with the employers that they’re students first,” Wooldridge said.

Melena Perry, a 24-year-old from Greenwood, Arkansas, has been enrolled at the UofA for six years and has been employed by the on-campus Starbucks for just as long. She also recently started as a peer mentor and ambassador for the School of Art.

Melena Perry continues her sixth year at the University of Arkansas studying Studio Art. She is a full-time student and has two jobs. Perry has collected about $20,000 in student loan debt. Photo by Mary Hennigan

Neither of Perry’s jobs is included in the Federal Work-Study program, but both are on campus, she said.

Perry said she’s experienced many pressures from having two jobs while being a full-time student. There are a lot of high expectations to succeed, make good grades, be independent and financially support herself.

While Perry has received help from her split household, she has still obtained about $20,000 in student loans and thinks her parents have collected nearly the same amount in Parent PLUS loans, which are loans that parents of dependent undergraduate students can use to help pay for college.

“Now that I do have debt from my tuition, there is even more pressure to graduate so I get a good job to pay off the loans,” Perry said. “I’m trying to crawl my way to the finish line.”

Perry is expected to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art.

Students have access to off-campus work-study positions, but some UA students seek jobs that are not part of the program.

Lao works off campus in a job that focuses on her major in marketing and minor in enterprise resource planning. She uses her income from E.Leigh’s Contemporary Boutique on Dickson Street to make car payments and buy groceries.

Lao sought employment off campus because she thought the Federal Work-Study program “might be too time consuming,” she said.

Lao came from a single-parent household, so she understood the importance of going to work and being self-reliant, she said. She has received federal student aid because of her family situation.

Lao and her mother have a plan of how to tackle the almost $50,000 she will have accumulated in student loan debt by the time she graduates, but she is scared because she doesn’t want it to affect her credit in the future, she said.

Information about Work-Study can be found online through the Career Services website, the Human Resources office’s website and the Newswire, Wooldridge said.

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019

Students Seek Student Loan Financial Advice

By Emily Thompson & Brooke Borgognoni
The Razorback Reporter

As Kat de Sonnaville, a 21-year-old senior, wraps up her studies at the University of Arkansas, she wishes the college offered one more course: financial literacy to help her navigate the student loan application and repayment process.

Kat de Sonnaville said financial literacy courses are needed to understand student loans. Photo by Brooke Borgognoni

“I think the university should make a financial literacy course a requirement for all students who take out loans,” said de Sonnaville, who faces $18,500 in student loan debt. “I want to know what paying back my loans are going to look like, how long I’ll have to pay them back and helpful tips on staying on top of debt after college.”

Students graduating from the University of Arkansas, the state’s largest school, had median student loan debt of $21,500 in 2016-17, unchanged from the year earlier, according to College Scorecard, a U.S. Department of Education database. The UofA had 22,254 students enrolled in 2016-2017 and tuition was $22,000. According to College Scorecard, 47 percent of them received Pell grants.

The average student loan debt in Arkansas was $14,926 in the 2016-17 academic year, up $136 from the year earlier, according to College Scorecard. The median debt loads ranged from $3,500 at East Arkansas Community College to $34,240 at Strayer University for the 2016-17 academic year.

De Sonnaville, a first generation student, gained information about student journalism scholarships by speaking with her professors during office hours. She now credits the School of Journalism and Strategic Media for providing that guidance and making it financially possible to finish out her degree at the UofA.

Average Tuition Costs for Arkansas Colleges, 2016-2017 school year. Graphic By Emily Thompson and Brooke Borgognoni

“I have received many scholarships from my department, the School of Journalism and Strategic Media,” de Sonnaville said.

Between jobs and scholarships, de Sonnaville does not have to take out loans this year. De Sonnaville supports herself through two on-campus jobs. She works as a Resident Advisor for Maple Hill South and as a multimedia intern at the College of Engineering. These two jobs provide de Sonnaville with free room and board, a monthly stipend and biweekly paychecks.

De Sonnaville said that she is concerned that the UofA will not reach out to her about paying off the loans after she graduates in May. Each loan provider has their own rules and regulations on when and how student loans must be repaid.

The University of Arkansas offers a variety of scholarships and programs aimed at keeping costs down for students. Some of these scholarships total up to $16,000, offering a $4,000 award renewable for up to four years. They also offer programming to help students navigate the challenges that come with college life.

Student Support Services is a federally funded program through the Department of Education that helps first-generation students, low income students and students with disabilities obtain a college education. Student Support Services is a national program and the services it provides varies based on the college. At the UofA, some of the services it provides include workshops on topics like applying for financial and time management, one-on-one guidance with student support specialists and grants.

Ramon Balderas, a UofA student development specialist and student retention coordinator, said that college, particularly learning how to finance it, can be more difficult for first-generation students.

“You could be the most intelligent student, get straight A’s all through high school, but if you are put into a system that you don’t know how to navigate, it’s going to complicate your journey,” said Balderas, a first-generation college student.

De Sonnaville, however, said initiatives like Student Support Services did not provide the loan counseling and financial literacy services she needed.

Shorter College students saw the biggest increase in student debt in 2016-17. The median student debt load for Shorter College students increased $4,000 between 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic years to $28,000 for 2016-17 at Shorter College.

Shorter College is a private, faith-based, two-year liberal arts college in North Little Rock. It is also one of 110 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. Graduates of Shorter College earn an associates degree in general studies, according to their website.

There were 446 students attending Shorter College in 2017. The average cost for the 2016-2017 academic year was $20,500. According to College Scorecard, 87 percent of Shorter College’s students receive a federal Pell grant for low-income families.