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PAGE 8
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Student debt has long-term effects
LAUREN METZLER
@KansanNews
Student debt is a rising concern for students in school and after graduation, causing them to delay marriage, put off buying homes and even change their career choices, said William Elliott III, associate professor in the School of Social Welfare and assets and education initiative director for KU.
Another problem is the switch to income-based payment plans, which reduce each payment by stretching them out over a longer period
"I'm trying to justify the debt by getting good grades so that I can earn more later on."
of time. This allows interest rates to be applicable for even longer.
"Interest is a problem generally and ... when you fall behind on payments a lot of times what happens with students is their loan amounts double or triple when they get all these extra interest rate penalties that they have to pay," Elliott said.
On average, it takes a student about 13 years to pay off their debt, Elliott said. Income-based payment plans can extend that time up to 25 years.
based payment plans are the best way to go because it's just taking the problem and stretching it out over a longer period of time," Elliot said.
FREDERICK BEAL Sophomore from Salina
"I don't think these income
Elliott believes that assets-based plans, where the state might match a person dollar for dollar in a savings account or make a first deposit, will help savings accumulate faster.
The topic of debt raises the question: Is it feasible for students to put them selves through college without accumulating student debt?
"Obviously it is feasible in some circumstances, but they are limited. The amount that
college costs nowadays, most students aren't going to make that amount of money when they're working," Elliott said.
Frederick Beal, a sophomore from Salina, pays for college with student loans. He will graduate with around $50,000 in debt.
"I'm not really worried, I'm trying to justify the debt by getting good grades so that I can earn more later on," Beal said.
Edited by Casey Hutchins
Elliot's Tips for Debt
- Start a savings account early
- Long-term payment plans are not a great option
- Re active politically so that changes in funding can be made in favor of students
RILEY MORTENSEN
@RileyMortensen
Though the department of information technology deals with many issues on campus, right now it main focus is customer service.
KU IT improves customer service
David Day, director of IT External Affairs, said he's noticed a trend among call centers that his department hopes to implement in their own customer service center.
"I've noticed lately when I call for customer support from IT support or cable companies the person I talk to will, instead of transferring me, say 'do you mind holding,'" Day said.
Day said one thing IT is focusing on improving this semester specifically is first call resolution. Instead of passing customers on to someone else, the department is working to have customers problems resolved by the first person they speak with.
"We're taking more of the burden on ourselves to ask the customer if they mind waiting just a few minutes and then we'll chase down the answers for them and that's just good customer service," Day said.
Students may think the IT department's only responsibilities are fixing WiFi or helping someone set up a computer, but that doesn't
mean there is a problem with the program, it's just a matter of knowing how to work the program.
"We're taking more of the burden on ourselves to ask the customer if they mind waiting just a few minutes and then we'll chase down the answers for them ..."
DAVID DAY
Director of IT External Affairs
When technology is the root of the problem, it's usually a problem with the device itself rather than a system like
blackboard or email, Day said. Day said identity services pertains mostly to password resets, students forgetting passwords and difficulties with online IDs. In April, identity services came in at the top of the IT services list of problems they address with 24 percent of total IT tickets.
"Very few times is it that a service is actually broken," Day said. "In fact, our service uptime is about 99.8 percent, that means 99.8 percent of the time it's available and that's kind of across the board for our services."
Edited by Ashley Peralta
Ohio plane crash kills 4 students
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A small rented airplane crashed and burned shortly after takeoff Monday, killing four college students who were taking a sightseeing flight around Cleveland after their first day of classes.
The four men were students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Three were members of the varsity wrestling team.
The wrestlers were identified as 20-year-old Lucas Marcelli of Massillon, Ohio; 18-year-old Abraham Pishevar of Rockville, Maryland; and 18-year-old John Hill of St. Simons, Georgia. The fourth student was the pilot, 20-year-old William Felten of Saginaw, Michigan.
Marcelli and Felten were sophomores and Pishevar and Hill were freshman.
The plane appeared to be trying to return to the airport when it crashed, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. He said investigators expect to file a preliminary
report next week, but the full investigation could take a year to complete.
Bryan Marcelli of Massillon in northeastern Ohio said his son Lucas and the three other students planned to go up, take a look around and come right back to the same airport. He said Lucas was a hard-working student but not a risk taker.
"If he wasn't my son, I'd want my son to be around him, because he was such a positive influence," Marcelli said. "I don't know anybody that doesn't like him."
Lucas Marcelli graduated from Jackson High School in Massillon and twice qualified for Ohio's state wrestling tournament.
Abraham "Abe" Pishevar recently graduated from Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, Maryland. High school classmate Cam Giarraputo said Pishevar never boasted about his wrestling accomplishments.
"He was always modest, never a show-off," Giarraputo said.
Case Western Reserve is one of the world's top research universities. The campus sprawls across a large portion of Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood in a mix of stately stone and brick buildings and distinctive modern structures. Students on campus gathered Tuesday afternoon in Veale Center, one of the school's athletic facilities, to talk and to console each other.
The university's wrestling coach, Mark Hawald, said no coach is ever prepared to deal with the sudden death of young athletes.
We're just coping and mourning and figuring how we can move on from losing three of our teammates, three of our brothers, three of our family," Hawald said.
Case Western Reserve will work closely with the men's roommates and friends, university President Barbara Snyder said in a statement.
There are no indications why the single-engine Cessna 172R crashed so soon after takeoff Monday night from Cuyahoga
County Regional Airport in suburban Richmond Heights. The plane crashed in nearby Willoughby Hills.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol official said the plane had been rented by Felten for four hours and that he did not file a flight plan.
Residents who live near the airport rushed to the crash site and found the plane engulfed in flames. Mark Gerald, 45, told Northeast Ohio Media Group that he was sitting on his front porch and could hear a plane engine struggling. He said the plane exploded as he and neighbors ran toward it. The four men were trapped inside the wreckage.
"It was too hot," he said. "The whole fuselage was involved."
William Honaker, 18, said he was driving in the area when he saw a "ball of light" and realized a plane was on fire.
Honaker said he also tried to approach the aircraft, but onlookers warned him to stop.
"(The plane) was so mangled," Honaker said. "I didn't want to look at it anymore, to be honest."
University set for emergencies with preparedness system
ALLISON KITE
@Allie Kite
The University is prepared if a disaster hits. It is ready with resources including the ability to communicate with students, regular drilling of responders and necessary shelter in case of severe weather.
Andrew Foster, emergency management specialist for the Office of Public Safety, said the University has plans in place for a variety of emergency and disaster situations and participates in drills as well.
Foster said one of the components of the University's emergency preparedness is a communication system. In
the case of a tornado, not only would the county and national weather service warn the general public, but students would also be able to sign up for texts via Enroll and Pay and can check alerts.ku.edu for updates.
Additionally, he said in the case of emergency, a building-wide voice alert can give students, staff and faculty instructions. The plan includes a provision for students with disabilities called a Personal Action Plan, available on the Public Safety website. Foster said this allows Public Safety to provide assistance to those who may have more trouble seeking shelter.
"What that does is allow
them to register in advance and say where they're going to be throughout the day so that if there was some sort of an emergency, we would have a little more advanced knowledge about who was where and we could try to provide assistance as available," he said.
Earlier in August, civilian and state agencies, the National Guard and federal agencies worked together for a drill called Vigilant Guard. Foster said the University could potentially participate in this drill in the future if an opportunity becomes available.
The Vigilant Guard, an exercise sponsored by the U.S.
Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau, sought to test the government's ability to respond in disaster situations. The training included drills to prepare responders for tornadoes in Emporia, Salina and Topeka and a bioterrorism incident at a concert in Wichita.
The tornado drills took place in Emporia, Salina, Manhattan and Topeka within days of each other, and prepared first responders how to handle a multifaceted disaster situation.
The drill also required responders to handle situations that could potentially stem from the original tornado, including fires or explosions.
Vigilant Guard was created to teach civilian agencies, states, the National Guard, neighboring states and even federal agencies to work together. Sharon Watson, the public affairs director for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department, said most disasters in Kansas would be handled by local efforts, potentially with the help of the state. For training purposes, the exercise was created on a much grander scale.
"That's really the benefit of this type of exercise," Watson said. "It requires that we not just talk about it such as a tabletop exercise, but actually reach out to those individuals and work with them through
phone conversations, through person-to-person interactions at a hospital or university, and talk through the process of what would happen in a situation."
Later this semester, the University will be participating with the county, state and Department of Transportation on a hazardous materials spill exercise. This will allow the University to practice reacting to such a situation and evacuating buildings as necessary.
during buildings in an emergency Students can find out more about staying safe in an emergency by reading the plan and other materials on the KU Public Safety Website.
Edited by Alyssa Scott
2,000 local, state and federal people took part in six-day exercise
Was Aug. 4-7, in which the Vigilant Guard conducted an exercise to test the disaster response of the state.
KANSAS DISASTER EXERCISE
The exercise involved the following disasters:
Tornadoes-search and rescue Train derailments Community security issues Hazardous material Industrial fire Flooding
Bioterrorism