How a Student Run Database is Changing the Way Universities Respond to Rape

How a Student Run Database is Changing the Way Universities Respond to Rape: "Justice for survivors of campus rape is often hard to come by. Now, an online database compiled by students is pushing universities to shift their policies on sexual violence.

Is there at least one full-time person working on campus sex-assault? May rape survivors report their attack confidentially and-or anonymously? Does the school's policy cover the sex assault of a man? Is emergency contraception available in the school health center?

These are the questions that students across the country are answering through the Campus Accountability Project, an open-access database designed for students, applicants and parents...."

So Close!

Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?

Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?: "Millions of young people may have a much harder time paying for an education.

Unless Congress acts soon, millions of college students could see the interest rate on their federal student loans double this summer—adding $5,000 to the cost of an education for students who pay off their loans in 10 years, and around $11,000 over 20 years.

Yet Republicans are claiming that keeping those rates low costs too much and isn't the federal government's job. Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee, even argued that it's unnecessary for any student to borrow money to go to college in the first place....."

For my story of how bad things got while I was in college, click here. It explains why this is such a bad idea. Things aren't as bad as they were, but things still aren't great. I can only hope that once I start my new job in my field, things will finally turn around.

Auction 2012: Greedy Bastards and Student Debt

Auction 2012: Greedy Bastards and Student Debt: "Imagine a product so irresistible that most Americans thought they couldn't live without it. Every President talked of its importance, and it was perceived of as the key to you or your child's future. There was a limited supply, and prices kept going up. The best business to be in would be lending to people so they can buy it.

I'm talking about higher education, and student loans..."

Way Too Much!

GOP Rep. Berates Student Concerned About Pell Grant Cuts, Tells Her To Join The Military

GOP Rep. Berates Student Concerned About Pell Grant Cuts, Tells Her To Join The Military: "To avoid a government shutdown at the end of 2011, Republicans succeeded in their campaign to cut the federal Pell Grant program by effectively kicking up to 100,000 low-income students off the rolls.

Last week, Arkansas constituent Kelly Eubanks, a college student who has two jobs and two children, confronted her Congressman, Rep. Steve Womack (R), at a town hall meeting over his attack on the program she now relies on. But instead of any explanation, Womack lashed out at Eubanks, telling her to pay her own way by “joining the military” like he did. After refusing to answer her question, he finally just asked her to “be quiet and listen.”..."

Will College Cost Half A Million $ By 2034?

The Benefits of Higher Education

Ana's For-Profit College Story

Occupy Student Debt #1

"I Cannot Eat Your Prayers": How Student Debt Changed One Woman's Mind on "Christian Charity"

"I Cannot Eat Your Prayers": How Student Debt Changed One Woman's Mind on "Christian Charity": "From an evangelical home to over $100,000 in student loans and healthcare debt, one writer faces the ways in which even progressive Christianity comes up short.

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s the story of a good girl from a quiet town who prayed, studied hard, said no to drugs, and otherwise did everything she was told—and then went on to become Sallie Mae’s bitch and lost just about everything. This story is mine.

I grew up in an evangelical home, and was an earnest “liberal-evangelical” into my early twenties. Now I think that my former religious faith—not unlike my faith in the U.S. higher education system—gave me a warped sense of optimism about the way the world works. I believed in faith-based platitudes, plus a few secular ones...."

The Second Shooting At Virginia Tech Means More Gun Control Debate

The Second Shooting At Virginia Tech Means More Gun Control Debate: There was another shooting at Virginia Tech today. It occurred just after noon. The Virginia Tech police officer pulled someone over, only to be shot and killed. There are reports that the second person who died in this incident was the shooter.

Aside from the obvious tragedy, this story comes with a couple of ironies. This was supposed to be a quiet “reading day” for Virginia Tech students. Tomorrow’s exams have been postponed as a result of today’s tragedy.

Also, Virginia tech officials were appealing a $55,000 for the fine they received for their handling of the previous shooting...."

Bill Maher: College is the next bubble

Bill Maher: College is the next bubble

Penn State Could Learn From OccupyCAL

Police Attack UCB Occupy Protesters

The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks

The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks: "USA Today says that at some point this year, student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion, surpassing even credit card debt. Felix Salmon says the number is closer to $550 billion. Either way total student loan debt is rising as other debts have tailed off. Delinquency has increased, too, since the height of the financial crisis.

It’s a huge mess....."

Student Loan Debt Crazy!

How Unpaid Internships Perpetuate Rampant Inequality in the US

How Unpaid Internships Perpetuate Rampant Inequality in the US: "Internship culture has become a source of class division, favoring the privileged, excluding others from opportunities granted to their better-off peers.

There is a job opening! It seems perfect—full time, in the non-profit sector, based in New York City. It's obviously a prestigious position—they're looking to hire someone with at least a masters’ degree, though in certain cases this can be interchangeable with five years of related work experience. There's only one small problem: it's unpaid.

According to statistics from the National Association for Colleges and Employers, the number of students at four-year colleges who took internships increased from nine percent to more than 80 percent between 1992 and 2008. Once the economy crashed, and a paying job became a luxury rather than a fact of life, many jobs were re-packaged as internships, promising experience and career connections in exchange for free labor...."

I had to do an unpaid internship that was required for me to graduate. It sucked. Spent 16 hrs a week away from my PAYING JOB so I could spent $10 a day parking at the hospital because I didn't feel safe walking 1/2 a mile there(free parking was about that far away). So not only did I not get paid, I had to pay the hospital for a service. Yey me. :|

Sex Work to Pay Off College Loans? How the College Debt Racket Sucks Young People Dry -- And Led Many to Occupy Wall St.

Sex Work to Pay Off College Loans? How the College Debt Racket Sucks Young People Dry -- And Led Many to Occupy Wall St.: "Student loan debtor: "Kids are told to get this expensive degree and you’ll get a job. You end up owing too much and owning nothing."

The young man standing next to the “Jail Sallie Mae, Cancel All Student Loan Debt” sign in Liberty Plaza last night could very well end up in jail himself – not for protesting economic injustice and marching on Wall Street, but for doing sex work to pay off his student loans. "My loans are $1,300 a month," he said. "My rent is $1,300 a month. My salary is $2,600 a month. You can see the problem. So I work as a prostitute for food and utilities."

Though he works a day job in the tech sector, it’s not enough to get by. "But it could be worse," he continued. "I could have to do sex work for all of it." ..."

Is the Near-Trillion-Dollar Student Loan Bubble About to Pop?

Is the Near-Trillion-Dollar Student Loan Bubble About to Pop?: "Student loans have been going up since the recession began--and now defaults are up too. Something has to be done, but what?




If you want to take a relation of violent extortion, sheer power, and turn it into something moral, and most of all, make it seem like the victims are to blame, you turn it into a relation of debt.” -- Economic anthropologist David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years




Tarah Toney worked two full-time jobs to put herself through college, at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, and still has $75,000 in debt. She graduated in six years with a Bachelor's in English and wanted to go on to teach high school...."