The movement against high tuition and extensive student debt is one that we, as students, should seriously consider getting involved in. We are living through it right now for some of us, the problem will actually alter the future path we plan to take. While the average income of the middle class rose by just over 15% over the last 50 years, college costs in the same period have risen by 171%. Attending college in todays world is a necessity and is often followed by graduate school. The tuition and other costs associated with this put a great financial burden on students and their parents often resulting with at least a $30,000 debt upon graduation if not more.This is a problem that can literally change the course of your life because the cost of the college you will ultimately attend is as much of a deciding factor as the curriculum the school offers and the major you will pursue. The ramifications of graduating with excessive loans is something that worries me personally and should worry our entire country. Wealth should not be the deciding factor in education and advancement. Today, even more education is required which will lead to even more debt. This fact hits home to me as I contemplate the feasibility of attending law school, which i hope to do. Our country needs qualified people who can afford to get an education. My research has revealed the many social ramifications including delayed marriages and children, more cautious entrepreneurial pursuits, and move away from jobs that interest them because everything is money driven. This is a movement that should include all races, genders,political parties, and all economic backgrounds because ultimately it is not just about finding a way to pay for your four years of college but how we want advanced education to be in our country for the future. There is currently a movement called the Million Student March which is working to get students from universities all over the country to come together and make a change. As i learn more about this movement I can see some of the problems with the organization and why it is not making as big of an impact as they may have hoped. So far it does not appear that UD has been a part of this movement, so that is something we could look into to help get our protests heard.
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Honors English 110-088 
Student debt is definitely an issue that is very relevant to all of here at UD and should be addressed more on this campus! I am a huge advocate for following one’s passions in life and finding a career that you genuinely will get satisfaction and happiness from, so I appreciate how you addressed that many times due to student debt people will go for jobs that are more stable for the money aspect. The fact that people also will typically have to attend graduate school to achieve their career goals is huge, because I feel as though sometimes people will move away from careers that require graduate school simply because of the debt that comes along with it. We should be encouraging people to continue their educations and make a better society, not inhibiting it with huge amounts of debt.
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I like that you picked a very college-specific movement to focus on. This issue will resonate with many of the students on campus at UD, especially with the out-of-state students who have extremely high tuition rates. You make a very good point about the increasing necessity of even higher education than undergraduate school and how that only increases the debt students accrue over their educational career. An angle that would be interesting for your group to emphasize is financial literacy. It would be hard to formulate a plan in the time we have that would make an impact on the cost of tuition, so one direction your group could take is helping students understand how to cope with the financial burden of college. Many students go into even more debt than necessary because they don’t understand the different financial aid opportunities available to them. Students often lack comprehension of the intricacies of loans and how to go about receiving grants, scholarships, work-study loans, and the like. College is typically the first time students are responsible for their own money management, so educating them could help decrease the debt they accumulate by the end of their time at UD.
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