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University Daily Kansan, May 2, 1983
Plan lifts woes of college cost
By United Press International
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — St. Olaf College, a prestigious, small liberal arts school, has a plan to help a widening pool of middle- and upper-income parents send their children to college.
An educational trust program proposed by the college requires $50,000 in assets, $10,000 of which would be transferred into a student loan fund and the rest into a charitable trust which would sidestep capital gains and gift
IN SOME CASES it could pay for two students in college for the price of one and eventually repay the family much more. He invested, a college spokesman said.
Ray Wahlberg, director of deferred giving programs at St. Olaf, said the procedure was complicated and would have to be structured right for maximum benefit.
Most of the money would be invested in 29-year corporate bonds.
Wahlberg said the plan would work best if set up three years before a student enrolled in school. Then the cash flow would cover all the annual expenses of a private college such as St. Olaf, which will charge $8,150 tuition, board and room next school year. When set up before enrollment, there would be money flowing if a second student enrolls.
Wahlberg advises against selling property or other assets to get the $50,000. If the property is given to the tax-exempt college instead, the college can sell the assets and avoid a capital gains tax.
WAHLBERG SAID a family that sold a property for $50,000 wind up with only $42,000 after capital gains taxes. The cost of a four-year education at St. Alaf or a comparable school would be $38,600, leaving only $5,400 for graduate school or the education of a second child.
Using the St. Olaf plan, children of the family make the $50,000 investment would receive an annual interest income of $4,000 to $5,000 from the charitable trust. Over a 20-year period, the family would receive $92,974 in interest income.
If a student enters school at the same time the trust is established, the cash flow from the fund would not keep pace at first, Wahlberg said. Parents would then have to pay interest to the college on the balance of borrowed money.
WAHLBERG SAID the administration of the college, over the years, had done an excellent job in controlling costs.
he said he had requests for information on the St. Olaf plan from Tulane University, Brandeis University, Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and Michigan State in Rochester, N.Y., the Rhode Island School of Design and others.
There have been no requests from Ivv League schools.
Adults back at college to learn skills
By United Press International
An increasing number of adults are going to college, and educators say the trend reflects a changing attitude in the United States that education is not just for the young.
Older people are managing family, work and social obligations to make time for classes to acquire new jobs skills or improve present ones.
ACCORDING TO the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington, 28 percent of all students enrolled in college degree programs in 1972 were 25 years or older. In 1980, 34.3 percent of college students were 25 or older, and in 1990 it is projected the figure will be 47 percent.
"America is no longer a child-centered educational society," said Gary Eyre, executive director of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education. "Education is truly a learning process from cradle to grave," he said.
Eyre, whose group helps promote adult education, said older people were returning to school for the "sheer pleasure of learning." He said adults learned everything from tax into loopsholes to how to repair a Volkswagen engine.
But the most important reason adults are returning to the classroom, according to Eyre, is to learn new marketable skills.
Mary Josephs, coordinator of the adult services program at Michigan State University, agrees.
"THE NATURE of jobs is rapidly changing," she said. "Many had been to college when they were younger, but none have been trained for are no longer available."
She cited teachers as an example. Many have returned to school to get new jobs skills, she said.
Other older students have returned to college to add to their present job skills, she said.
One such older student is Charles Santo, who is studying for a nursing degree at the University of Miami. Santo, 49, coordinates a hospital rehabilitation program for the physically disabled in Miami.
Although he had master's degrees in counseling and urban studies, he lacked expertise in physical aspects of health. He decided to study nursing, which he said would help him perform his job better.
JOSEPHS SAID older students such as Santo faced problems that younger students did not have - managing family, job, social and community obligations to attend college.
Santo works full time at nights and weekends so that he can take the required courses that are offered only on weekdays.
"Only one other person in my class is working full time," he said.
Santo is the oldest and the only mate in class.
"Going back to school is especially difficult for self-supporting adults or parents who are the sole financial support of their families because they cannot afford to give up their present jobs," he said.
Not all older students work while attending school.
DON CIAVOLA, 26, of Rensselaer,
N.Y., is an English major at the State
University of New York at Albany. He
is being supported by his girlfriend
while he attends school.
An aspiring writer, Clavola worked as a deck foreman on a boat that delivered supplies and fuel to offshore oil rigs around the world.
"The hardest thing was to quit work altogether," he said. "I have always supported myself. It was hard to go on student loans and rely on someone."
Besides work and family obligations, older students may have a morale problem because of poor self-perception, Josephs said.
"The older student thinks, 'How am I going to compete against these younger students?' "
ALTHOUGH YOUNGER students may have some advantages because they have been in school more recently and may know what to expect from teachers, older students have advantages, too, Josephs said.
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