The True Cost of Higher Education

Hard work and tears may be enough to get graduates through college, but the real payment for their degree comes after graduation.

Many college students and recent graduates are faced with the burden of their student loan debt that hangs over them long after the four years they spent in school.

“Your still paying for college so many years after you graduate,” Blair McCraney said, a recent Winthrop University graduate.  “It’s like you get out of college, but you’re still thinking about college all of the time and how much it cost you.”

According to Susannah Snider’s article “Avoid Turning Into a Scary Student Loan Stat” that was published on the U.S. News and World Report website in July, the average undergraduate borrower from the class of 2012 took on $27,183 in student loan debt.

“The student loan business is a big market so often times students are great targets for student loan companies because they know that your investing in your human capital, and provided that you successfully complete college you will be able to pay it back,” Philip Gibson said, assistant professor of finance at Winthrop University.

Private companies or the government can fund the loans that are available to students and these loans can be subsidized or unsubsidized.

According to Gibson, it would be good for students to understand the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized loans. 

“A subsidized loan is where the government will pay your interest while you’re in school versus an unsubsidized loan in which your interest is accumulated on your loan while you are in school,” Gibson said.

These student loans do come at a price, which is the interest that has to be paid on that loan.  Recent graduates can find themselves in serious financial trouble if they fall behind on payments and default on their loans.

“[Defaulting on loans] can destroy your credit, and it is extremely difficult to file bankruptcy to get out of student loans,” Gibson said. “During the period in which you’re not paying you are accumulating interest.  You are liable.  So your wages can be garnished and you can possibly loose your home.”

McCraney and her husband have begun to take measures to chip away some of their debts in order to remain financially stable.

“We began to take a financial peace class when we first got married.  The ‘snowball effect’ is a strategy that we learned.  Essentially you pay off the smallest loan first because those are the ones you can finish the fastest and will no longer be paying interest on those loans.  Any extra money that we have goes towards that and we are very committed. We have a strong budget that we both agreed to.  As soon as you get the first one paid off you roll that entire payment to the second loan and you pay it off with that same intensity.  It just keeps going like that.”

According to Gibson, how students manage their loans while they are in college can have a significant impact on the payments and debt they have after graduating.  He believes that while student loans may be viewed as taboo they aren’t a bad debt to have, “it’s the irresponsible use of student loans that is bad.”

“Many students will take out extra student loans to fund things like a spring break vacation or a car,” Gibson said.  “Just things that are wants, but not necessarily needs.  Sticking to the needs is a way to avoid using loans irresponsibly, which is covering tuition, housing and other school related expenses.  For anything else get a part-time job to pay for it.”

Consolidating loans as a recent graduate could be beneficial and make it more feasible to make payments toward debt.

“With loan consolidation you could get a low interest rate and extend the repayment of this loan over a longer monthly period, which would result in lower monthly payments,” Gibson said.

The website of The Project On Student Debt, a nonprofit dedicated to making college more affordable, reported that 71% of all students graduating from a four-year college in 2012 had student loan debt.

“We are at this point in society when a lot of people go to school and the majority of people graduate with some debt,” McCraney said.

McCraney, however, believes that the benefit of college out weighs the costs.

“College and the expenses from those four years is so astronomical now, yet it so imperative to your life after graduation,” McCraney said.  “It comes down to the value of education.  Even though college is very expensive it is something that is priceless because no one can ever take your education from you.”

While these loans burden college graduates they have afforded many students the opportunity to go to college who may not have otherwise been able to.

“Student loans can be viewed as you borrowing against your future income.  It provides someone who may not have the means available to go to college to borrow from their future income.  Once you start working you’re going to pay it back, it is essentially moving your income across time,” Gibson said.

Professor Gibson provides some tips to help minimize the cost of college and the effects student loans have on millenials in this audio clip.

Diversity In Male-Dominated Industry: Women in Tech

Winthrop University graduate Michelle Rojas has always had a love for technology.  Interacting with it like many other millennials do, Rojas enjoys her laptop, social media and the mobile apps on her cell phone. 

Although Rojas’ interest in technology extends beyond what is readily provided for her consumption, she is drawn to the creation of those technologies—so much so that Rojas pursued it as a career.

“I started as an intern at an Internet marketing agency and kind of just moved my way up from specialist to now manager,” Rojas said.

Rojas goes to work every day as a campaign manager where she and her team provide services in SEO, email marketing and pay-per-click campaigns. 

For Rojas, while she is a team member at work she is not blind to the fact that she is one of the few female team members in her occupation. 

Women, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, held 26 percent of the 3,816,00 computing related jobs in 2013.  Just 5 percent of those women were Asian, 3 percent African American and 2 percent were Hispanic.  Rojas is one of these women.

Many women, companies and organizations have become aware of the statistics showing the lack of women in technology, and how navigating within a predominantly male-dominated industry comes with some difficulties.

“There are definitely complex barriers that discourage women and minorities from entering technology,” said user experience designer and Winthrop University graduate Sarah Auvil.  “In regards to women there seems to be a pervasive stigma that they must not know as much about technical areas as their male counterparts.”

According to Rojas, this idea of putting women in softer roles in the workplace because “they think that women can’t handle it,” can be discouraging and create barriers for women pursuing a career in tech or who are currently in it.

Associate professor of computer science at Winthrop University Chlotia Garrison, Ph.D., believes that barriers for women in this field still exist and begins at an early age.

“Unfortunately there are barriers and it starts young,” Garrison said.  “By the time [women] get to college they’ve seen what a lawyer does on TV or what have you, and a lot of them don’t have an understanding of what computer science is and what it involves.”

Rojas was fortunate enough to gain exposure to the technology field at an early age.

Prior to moving to Greenville, South Carolina, while in high school Rojas lived in New Jersey. Her father encouraged her to apply to a community college program during the summer, which included free math and science courses. 

“That was the first time I had done any kind of programing,” Rojas said. “It was C++, a little bit of Javascript and an intro to HTML course.”

HTML was the language that had stuck out to Rojas the most.

“When I did HTML that’s when I was like ‘this is awesome.’ That was when the internet really became big, AOL was like the thing, and so being able to create a webpage was awesome because that’s what everyone was talking about, the Internet,” Rojas said.

The program spurred Rojas into what would later become her career field.  According to Rojas, that was the moment when she knew what she wanted to do.

“I was like I want to be able to do this.  I want to be able to create a whole website.  After that class I started teaching myself a little bit more about HTML,” Rojas said.

According to Garrison, multiple organizations are pushing to try to increase the amount of women in technology fields by creating programs similar to what Rojas attended.

“Part of that is just getting out the knowledge of what computer science is by getting it into lower and lower grades,” she said.  “There are summer camps that do that.  There is also something called ‘An Hour of Code’ that will happen in December and the idea is to try and get millions of people to try an hour of code to see what it is.”

Garrison believes that exposing girls to the possibilities in the technology field at a young age like Rojas was has the potential to make a lifelong impact and tip the scale in the disparity between men and women in this industry.

“It starts in school by teaching children about how digital technology is made and exposing them to different career paths,” Auvil said. 

            Once in the industry Rojas, like other women in male-dominated fields, has encountered barriers and a disparity of treatment between herself and her male co-workers such as being talked to in a patronizing or undermining tone. 

            Crystal Starks, a user experience designer and the Charlotte chapter leader for Girl Develop It, is one of two women in her team of 15.  She said that sometimes the women are criticized about their work more openly then the men who are critiqued.

            “It’s like they are ‘teaching’ [women] something all of the time,” Starks said. 

Rojas, however, believes that many of these instances are subconscious and her co-workers don’t realize their actions.

“At the office sometimes, I don’t think that they intentionally do things like that, but they tend to assume that the women will take on the stereotypical roles,” she said. “Like if lunch was brought in then the women will be the ones to clean it up.  That’s changed now since we have said something about it, but things like that they don’t even think about.”

At the start of Rojas’ managerial position she received a call from a disgruntled client.  The client took her frustrations out on Rojas, and while she remained professional, afterward the interaction took an emotional toll.

“I closed the door and cried in my office and my female manager was like ‘you can’t react like that because then they are going to think that you can’t handle it,’” Rojas said.

It was said that women who outwardly display “masculine skills, such as assertiveness and independence,” perform better in Michael Casey’s article published in August, “When Competing in a Male-Dominated Field Women Should ‘Man Up,’” which was featured on Fortune Magazine’s website.

According to Rojas, this idea pressures women to be something they are not.

“I shouldn’t feel punished or I shouldn’t feel bad for being who I am, and if I so happen to have an emotional response to something so be it.  It shouldn’t be seen as a weakness,” Rojas said.

While some women are encouraged to act more like men in the work place in order to succeed their capabilities are at the same time challenged and seen to not be on par with those of their male co-workers.

According to Auvil, this is especially true for women developers who are believed to not “be able to talk shop with ‘the guys.’”

For Rojas her capabilities and knowledge are sometimes challenged when her supervisor discusses subjects that are more technical, and she expresses that he tries to correct her about something she already knows about.

“I’ve been doing this for years.  I know how it works,” Rojas said.

Common to many male dominated industries the female presence is also frequently passed over, and sometimes leave women out all together.

“Programmers are so commonly thought of as men that there are even reported job descriptions that use the pronouns ‘he,’ ‘his,’ and ‘him’ to describe the potential candidate,” Auvil said.

Instances such as this can discourage women who are in the tech field to stay or women who would like to pursue a career in tech.

The stories of 716 women who had left the technology field for various reasons had been collected in Kieran Snyder’s article “Why Women Leave Tech: It’s the Culture, Not because ‘Math is Hard,’” which was featured on Fortune Magazine’s website in October.  All of the women agreed that it wasn’t due to issues related with science education.  According to Synder, “it’s the culture, not because ‘math is hard.’”

The ways in which that culture is perpetuated within society contributes to the lack of women in this industry.

“Media representation is a problem,” Auvil said.  “Many of the stereotypes of who technologists are often discourage women and diversity.”

According to Auvil, “technology is the creation of tools to solve human problems,” and when the power to create technology is only in the hands of one group the result is only their ideas being reflected onto society.

“It can create an even greater disparity in society by disproportionately creating solutions that benefit people from the same background,” Auvil said.  “Equal representation in tech and design teams and putting thought into the human impact of digital products creates better solutions that benefit diverse types of people.”

Auvil said that companies can help make a difference by “creating work cultures that appeal to diverse groups of people.”

For instance, Google’s diversity webpage said that the company has recognized that a diverse workplace is better for society and that “having a diversity of perspectives leads to better decision-making, more relevant products and makes work a whole lot more interesting.”

           

According to “What is the Impact of Gender Diversity on Technology Business Performance: Research Summary” by Lecia Barker, Cynthia Mancha and Catherine Ashcraft, gender-balanced companies “demonstrate superior team dynamics and productivity.”

The report continues to say that gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings, and “that innovative change is less likely to emerge from a group with a more homogeneous knowledge base.”

According to Barker, Mancha and Ashcraft, in order for organizations to realize these benefits they need to create supportive infrastructures and cultures that foster diversity.

For instance, Google has begun to take an initiative to expand diversity within their company.

Google’s workforce is only made up of 30 percent of women according to a study it released in May. 

“Women are half the world’s population.  We’ve got to increase their participation in computer science and keep women at Google on the path to leadership,” Google’s diversity webpage said.

To begin this process Google has partnered with other companies and launched initiatives of its own.

Google’s initiative to curb the gender disparity by getting girls interested in coding and computer science was discussed in “No Really. How Do We Get Girls to Code,” an article published in June by reporter Hayley Tsukayama of The Washington Post.

According to Tsukayama, Google launched “Made With Code,” which encourages teen girls to do projects that include creating animated gifs, composing digital soundtracks and 3-D printed bracelets in their visual programming editor. 

Like Google, many have begun to realize the importance of having diversity in the workplace and have begun initiating different ways in which to encourage women to pursue tech.

Organizations like Girl Develop It help to provide affordable and accessible programs to women.  As the chapter leader for Charlotte, Starks has been able to encourage women in her community to pursue and continue interests in the technology field.

            “It has been such a blessing.  I have helped women change their careers and keep their careers,” Starks said.

Garrison believes that efforts like this assist in increasing the amount of women in the field, and with more women in tech the barriers for women can begin to be broken down.

“There are some women that still experience the idea that women might not be as good.  The more women that are in the field the more that would expel that,” Garrison said.

Rojas has also taken efforts to spread interest technology to other women and hopefully encourage them to also enjoy the field that she loves.

“I ended up teaching SEO at Geek Girl Tech Con and Girl Develop It this year,” Rojas said.  “I enjoy knowing that someone gained value out of that and is going to apply it in their lives, and it’s cool knowing that you had some kind of impact on their lives at that point in time.”

Her time in the industry has allowed Rojas to realize that her experiences can be beneficial and help other women as well.

“I think the most important thing, and I’m still kind of dealing with this, is do not be afraid of failing,” Rojas said.  “I think our generation is so hung up on failure that they are afraid to try new things and explore. It’s also all about perspective.   You shouldn’t have the mindset that being a minority or a female will hold you back.  I work to do the best that I can do while knowing that I’m just as capable as everyone else.”

Voters' Love-Hate Relationship with Negative Ads Perpetuates Use

Mudslinging may seem dirty, but it works.

“Negative ads are continually used because it works,” said Scott Huffmon, founder of the Social & Behavioral Research Lab at Winthrop University.  “America hates negative ads.  America responds to negative ads.”

Politicians often seek an advantage by referring to their opponents’ negative aspects rather than highlighting the positive attributes of their own campaign.  The technique of using attack ads has become commonplace during political elections.

According to Huffmon, negative ads have the ability to rally supporters of a particular candidate or dissuade undecided voters from supporting their opponent, leaving an impression on every viewer.

“People say it’s distasteful, it’s horrible, but in the end, from what’s called the impression driven model of public opinion, people often don’t remember specifics,” said Huffmon.  “They just remember the impression that’s left, and after a while of hearing ‘this person’s a dirt bag’ they have a bad impression of them even if they’re not exactly sure why.”

Attack ads are continuously used not only because they leave an impact on viewers, but also due to politicians being within legal rights to distribute them.  Even though many attack ads become controversial, legally TV stations can’t deny them.

For instance, Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor sponsored an ad, “Emergency Response,” that claims his challenger, Republican Tom Cotton, voted against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola.  Cotton is also accused of choosing tax cuts for billionaires over Arkansas and choosing to not to protect families.

According to “The Law of Publication Communication” by Kent Middleton and William Lee,  “a broadcast station has no control over the content of programming aired by political candidates.” 

The book continues to say the Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 prohibits the censorship of candidates from broadcasters regardless of whether “their statements are racist, vulgar or defamatory.”

Although the Federal Communications Commission protects politicians from broadcasters they are not exempt from others taking legal action against their attack ads.

While plaintiffs have the ability to sue they must prove the ad to be false in order to win their case.

However, according to Nathaniel Frederick, assistant professor of mass communication at Winthrop University, it is challenging for plaintiffs to win a libel case.

“It’s difficult to sue because the idea is that political campaigns are a part of a robust deliberation, discussion of issues or character of the other person,” said Frederick.  “That type of speech can get heated.  Politicians have willingly put themselves in the spotlight and that spotlight is only increased during an election.  It seems difficult for a politician to win a libel suit.”

Negative ads continue to be aired even though they are often found to not be truthful or they contain half-truths.

“Listened,” an ad released by Cotton, accuses President Obama of hijacking the farm bill and making it a food stamp bill.  However, according to Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post, food stamps have been apart of the farm bill for decades as a logrolling arrangement between rural and urban lawmakers.  Rural Republicans get farm subsidies and city Democrats receive food stamps for their constituents.

It’s not required for ads of this nature to be retracted and politicians aren’t held accountable if their ads contain falsities.

“It may seem deceptive, but it’s still protected because of free speech,” said Frederick.  “Those lies may mislead voters, but in the context of democracy and free press the press is supposed to serve as a watch dog of government officials, to do the work to uncover who is lying.”

While Politicians promote their own negative ads during election campaigns there are also negative ads that aren’t sponsored or approved by politicians.

For instance, an ad by Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit corporation, attacks Pryor’s dedication to his senior citizen constituents. Their ad “Double Standards” accuses Pryor of wanting to “overhaul” social security by increasing the retirement age, and trying to reward illegal immigrants by giving them social security.

According to Frederick, politicians are not associated with negative ads that are published by independent organizations and PACs. This protects politicians from possible backlash of a negative ad that isn’t sponsored by them and saves them money.

It is estimated that at the end of the midterm elections roughly $4 billion will have been spent on mainly TV advertisements. 

The U.S. Senate race in Arkansas has topped the $20 million mark in TV ads and, according to Peter Urban of Arkansas News, this Senate race ranks seventh nationally in ad spending.

The current spending rates for political TV ads, coupled with the effectiveness of negative ads, may validate that negative ads could continue to prevail as a main campaign tactic for many elections to come.

Winthrop Speak of the Times: 50 Years of Integration

A panel of integration forerunners spoke to the Winthrop community about their experiences as African American students and staff during the height of racial tension 50 years ago.

            In 1964, Winthrop University admitted Dr. Cynthia Roddey and Delores Johnson Hurt as the first black graduate and undergraduate students. Six years later, the first black librarians, Ellen Owens and Dorothy Barber, were hired and began their 44-year career at Winthrop. 

            All four panelists agreed that although they did not initially choose Winthrop, they are now thankful that they did.

            “Studying at Winthrop allowed me to go on to Columbia University to study journalism in New York,” Hurt said.

            “We didn’t come in trying to be the first of anything, we just wanted a job,” Owens said.  “We got a job that was good to us and good for us.”

            A large amount of students turned out at the event to gain insight on what Winthrop was like 50 years ago.

            “I have a passion for African American history, especially at the institution I attend,” said Winthrop student Jay Greathouse. “I expect to get knowledge about the struggle they endured and how they paved the way.”

            According to the panelists, Winthrop’s integration was somewhat peaceful in comparison to other parts of the South.

            While it may have been peaceful, they still felt isolated from their white peers.

            “I couldn’t help but shed a few tears because I was alone,” Hurt said. 

            Towards the end of the luncheon, students had the opportunity to further question the ladies.

“How would you want African American students to carry themselves at Winthrop today,” asked student body vice president Jarvais Jackson.

            Hurt said she wanted African American students to enjoy themselves and become more involved on campus.  

             “The door has been opened, all [students] have to do is just walk through the door,” Barber said.

“We have to set the bar higher, not only here at home but all over the world,” Roddey said.

Recent Technology Enables a New Form of Harassment

During the past few decades the expansion of the digital industry has created a society that is immersed in high-tech electronics that have changed the way people interact with each other.

Working to Halt Online Abuse, a volunteer organization that fights to contend against online harassment by educating the general public claims “with the progression of our society, and ultimately the expansion of the internet, we are now seeing a new medium for abuse.”  Cyberstalking is the new medium.

A common misconception about cyberstalking is that it is following someone’s activities via social media, although according to Norton, an Internet security software provider, this is not entirely the case.  According to Norton cyberstalking can be expanded to also include false accusations, monitoring threats, identity theft, data destruction or manipulation, and the exploitation of minors.

“Cyber stalkers use email, instant messages, phone calls, and other communication devices to stalk,” the Norton Security website says.

The Internet provides an avenue for harassers to be able to create anonymity, which enhances the intimidation and makes tracing the activity more difficult to trace.  Although, victims are put in greater physical danger when combine with real world stalking; victims of domestic violence are often cyberstalking victims.

According to a bill passed in 2005, the South Carolina legislative amended a section their Code of Laws that pertains to stalking and harassment to include cyberstalking.  The bill defines cyberstalking as the “use of an electronic communication or electronic mail to unlawfully harass or stalk another person.”

This law, the South Carolina Code of Laws 16-3-1700, currently includes electronic communication in its definition of 2^nd degree harassment, which “may include, but not limited to, verbal, written, or electronic contact that is initiated maintained or repeated.”

If convicted of 2^nd degree harassment suspects are guilty of a misdemeanor and will be fined no more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned no more than a year.  Harassers can be charged with both penalties if they have had prior convictions of harassment or stalking within 10 years, or if they acted against a restraining order that prohibited the harassment.

            The motto of the Winthrop University Campus Police concerning harassment is “Don’t be a victim!  Be proactive not reactive!”

“As soon as it happens tell the person to stop,” said Sergeant James Howe of the Winthrop campus police.  “Don’t let it fester, be proactive and deal with it early on to keep it from spinning out of control.”

According to Howe there have been 5 reported cases of cyberharassment so far in 2014, but previously in 2012 there were no incidents reported. 

The Winthrop campus police provide several tips when dealing with harassment and stalking on their website.  For instance they suggest that victims document each encounter with the alleged suspect and save messages for evidence purposes.

“Let us know what’s going on by filing a complaint as soon as it happens,” said Howe.  “We will investigate what’s going on and make contact with the individual.  If there is continued contact we will see if it meets the elements of the crime.”

Under South Carolina law harassment is defined as a pattern of intentional, substantial and unreasonable intrusion into the private life of a targeted person; serves no legitimate purpose and causes the person mental or emotional distress.

 “If elements of a crime are present then there is probable cause and we will get a warrant for arrest,” said Howe.