Pres. talks as NBC news cameras roll

Published in the CSULB Daily 49er newspaper on Oct. 18.

Student loan debt in America is a growing concern, especially in the Northeast, but according to CSULB President F. King Alexander, the issue is spreading to the West like some sort of disease.

With an NBC news crew from New York present, Alexander addressed the Associated Students, Inc. Senate Wednesday to inform the students that a fight is being held in Washington to lift the current $23,000 student loan cap to allow for a $7,000 increase.

"Right now there's a bunch of higher education organizations and other agencies wanting to lift the cap," Alexander said. "What that means is the institutions that can raise tuition fees readily may rapidly escalate those costs, and will at a pace we don't even think of in the state of California."

Alexander also said NBC is gathering information for a story regarding this issue.

"They're here to talk about and get the nation to face the reality that student loan debt is an important crisis in American higher education," Alexander said. "And it matters where you grew up."

With an average debt of $6,200, 30 percent of graduates are leaving CSULB in debt, according to Alexander. The national average is higher, with 62 percent of students leaving college carrying an average debt amount of $21,000.

"If these loan caps go up, students go into greater debt," Alexander said. "Also, we don't want our peers raising their fees or tuition, because then they put us at a significant disadvantage in the higher education market place."

Alexander called on the Senate to help fight this issue in the future and told the students that it's "an important economic impact on your lives, on what you're hoping to achieve, and maybe even on the career you're pursuing."

The president said he was pleased to have NBC present and bringing attention to the story. He also said that he hoped some of the senator's faces were shown on national TV.

"We want our campus highlighted, we want this fight highlighted, we want these issues addressed at the federal level and we want to make sure these caps are kept on these loans so that these institutions and others won't shove a greater number of students into debt," Alexander said. "Quality doesn't equal the cost of attendance in the United States."

Alexander continued by mentioning that the more people who understand this, the more parents and students will realize that they don't have to spend $30,000 to $50,000 a year on higher education.

"Too many parents and too many students are misled into believing that," Alexander said.

The Senate didn't ask any questions at the end of Alexander's speech.

In other news, Sen. of the College of Liberal Arts Raul Preciado attempted to pass a resolution for a petition concerning campus safety, which will extend the hours of campus escorts and heighten security.

"This is an important resolution," Preciado said. "We have students that have taken action to make sure everyone is safer on campus, and I think the Senate should support them."

Preciado and Sen. of the College of Business Ruben Cordova attempted to have the resolution voted on and passed in one sitting when, according to ASI Executive Director Richard Haller, normal procedure calls for new resolutions to be read three times, then voted on.

The resolution proposed by Preciado and Cordova contained information that some senators disagreed with. The main focus of discussion fell on whether or not the resolution should read that there have been at least four sexual assaults and an attempted kidnapping.

According to Associate Vice President for Student Services Mike Hostetler, there were only three sexual assaults and one attempted kidnapping. Although there were four reported, one was found to be a false claim.

Due to possible inaccuracies, the resolution will be voted on in the next ASI Senate meeting on Oct. 24.