Balancing academics and job critical, says student advisor

(BELLEVILLE, Ont. 07/21/2011) David Beer, a student success mentor at Loyalist College works with many students who are struggling financially and academically. Photo by Jennifer Bowman

By Jennifer Bowman

The stresses of student debt are causing academic concern as more students get jobs to make ends meet.

“It’s incredibly discouraging not being positive your going to be able to pay for the class you’re in. I think even being sure that I’d have the money to cover the year it’d alleviate a lot of stress and be beneficial for my grades,” said Kim Van Pelt in an email interview.

Van Pelt is going into her third year at Loyalist College. After failing her third semester she switched programs, trying to salvage the money she’d spent so far and still get a diploma in the end.

Van Pelt is among many Canadian students with financial problems. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, with budget cuts and tuition fee increases over the past 26 years, student debt is higher than ever.

Even though students are borrowing more money to make payments, many are still barely able to make ends meet. Many pick up part-time or full-time jobs on top of their studies.

David Beer works with students at Loyalist who are in academic and financial trouble. As a student success mentor, his job is to help them figure out how to get through their tough time and be successful at school.

Student debt affects academic performance because students have to work, said Beer. When students work they either miss class or don’t get their homework done. It affects their performance drastically.

But he said the problem is not that students have to work, it’s how much they have to work.

The majority of students have to work 10 to 15 hours a week, said Beer. It’s the students who work 35 or 40 hours who are in trouble.

Working while going to school has become a necessity for students like Van Pelt.

“I’m considering cutting an entire semester because I don’t think I can afford second semester (this coming year),” said Van Pelt.

Van Pelt said one of the reasons she failed her third semester was because she was so stressed about her finances. She still doesn’t know her final grades – she can’t access them because she hasn’t been able to pay for her last semester.

“When I talk to students about working, the very first thing they say is, ‘Well I have to work, and if I don’t work I can’t come to school,’ so it’s a very circular argument,” said Beer.

That can lead to academic trouble.

“If not primarily, secondarily the cause of poor performance can be brought back to finances, because if you don’t have any money, you can’t put food on the table,” said Beer.

Pearl Vani-Hill has been working in the Ontario Student Loan Program office at Loyalist College for 29 years. One of the changes she’s noticed is how much debt students are starting college with.

Some students come in with personal lines of credit. Mature students are more likely to come with a bigger debt load because they may have children to support, more payments, and less financial help from parents, said Vani-Hill.

She’s also noticed a shift in budgeting priorities with cell phone bills, car loans, and car insurance playing important roles.

For Van Pelt, budgeting for sports is important.

“I know sports aren’t supposed to be high on your budget list,” said Van Pelt, “but I’ve always lived for sports. They cheer me up, they’re what keep me going and give me hope.”

“I’ve cut a lot of athletics out of my life because I couldn’t afford them. But I need to keep some of them, letting go of all them would be like letting go of myself.”

Van Pelt, like 60 per cent of Loyalist students, receives OSAP to help cover the cost of school. But that sometimes causes a problem in a different way.

OSAP is meant to supplement student income to help students through school, but sometimes students run into trouble because the more they earn, the less OSAP will loan them.

That’s changing this year. Starting in the fall, students are limited to earning $100 a week before their OSAP allotment is affected. Up until this year, there was a $50 limit.

How much students make at a summer job affects how much they receive as well, but different factors play into the calculations so students may not find out until after the summer is over what their limit actually was.

“I still don’t understand how OSAP determines how much each person gets,” said Van Pelt.

Vani-Hill says it comes down to budgeting and doing a reality check before starting school.

“You have to sit down and do a budget before you ever start school, do a reality check,” said Vani-Hill.

If they can’t make ends meet, maybe they should wait until they can lower their debt load, said Vani-Hill.

Van Pelt said she tried to budget before coming to school, but she had a skewed perception of how OSAP worked.

“I thought OSAP lent you a significant amount of money and made sure you were loaned enough to cover school,” said Van Pelt.

She found out she doesn’t get as much because her father makes a six-figure income, despite the fact she’s been supporting herself since her early years of high school. She also wasn’t able to account for all the unexpected challenges life brought.

She said she would do some things differently if she were to start over again.

This year she did find different living accommodations and plans to be more careful with where she spends her money.

Beer said OSAP has restrictions, but it can be worked around. He said students must persevere.

“There’s no magic pill here, you have to get from A to B and if getting an education at the end of that is going to put you in a better place to earn money, so if you have to be in poverty when you’re going to school, then that’s one of the things you have to do,” said Beer.

As the next generations of students attend post secondary education, Beer doesn’t see the problem of student debt going away.

Student debt will always be there, said Beer.

“I think it’s getting more complicated, but to the students benefit, they’re being more creative in finding ways to make money too,” said Beer.