She took comfort in the fact that she would receive financial aid, but the aid was denied as the California State University coped with the increase in fees, high enrollment and a budget $100 million short of what the CSU expected to be funded. Heartfield is now paying her tuition out-of-pocket.
‘I don’t want to take a loan, but I might have to in order to pay for tuition,’ Heartfield said, who works about 40 hours a week.
Still, the senior English major doesn’t consider herself severly affected by the economic crisis, but expects a competitive job market once she graduates.
‘It’s going to be hard to get a job because people aren’t going to be able to afford to retire,’ Heartfield said.
Director of the San Fernando Economic Research Center and cconomics professor Daniel Blake, agrees it will be harder for students to land a job compared to if there wasn’t an economic crisis.
‘Students ought to look at several strategies that will enhance the prospects of getting a job like getting an internship where they can get professional experience,’ Blake said.
‘Temp jobs are also a good idea for companies because they can let them go whenever they want and good for students because when it comes down to hiring people they’re going to hire the person who is already there,’ said Blake.
Blake knows some students live off of their credit cards while there in school, however students can expect to see less credit card offers, lower credit limits and potentially a higher interest rate, he said.
‘Be very consistent about paying your credit card bill and not going over your limit I know its an age-old thing but its crucial in times like these,’ Blake said.
With all of this comes an increase in people attending college because as the job market gets competitive people, want to become more qualified, which means students will be competing for more classroom space.
‘We’re seeing an increase in enrollment. At the same time we’re seeing a decrease in growing number of state funds,’ Blake said. ‘Because of the economy some of the labor force is going back to college to be more qualified and potentially earn more.’
College funds have also gone down, Blake said, which means private colleges are offering smaller and fewer scholarships. With lower savings and less loans available, students who would normally be applying to USC and UCLA are now applying to state colleges.
The CSU received almost 50,000 applications for fall 2009 earlier this month, up 21 percent from the same time last year. Transfer applications to CSU are up 40 percent over previous years.
Apart from further overcrowding classrooms and making it harder for students to graduate Lillian Taiz, Cal State Los Angeles history professor and California Faculty Association president said this will create a bigger state deficit.
‘That person at one point paying taxes isn’t going to be paying as much taxes as they were,’ Taiz said.
While the state budget didn’t cut funding for the CSUs, they are still struggling to meet the demands that come with an increase in enrollment.
Taiz hopes that students, faculty members and the community will speak up wwand support the CSU by demanding more funding from the state.
