Resources offered for Kent State students struggling with rising tuition and inflation rates

 

Students come from many different financial backgrounds, in which case tuition alone may be a struggle to afford. Contributing factors in costs of living, travel, and housing are adding up as well as causing stress for students across the nation.  

 

“Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation,” according to the Biden Administration. 

 

Kent State University Students have shared their concerns about the rising prices and frustration of what resources are available at the university.

 

Konner Johnston, 20, is a junior at Kent State University pursuing an exercise science degree. Johnston is balancing his work life all while attending Kent State.

Johnston has a class every day on campus followed by seven hour shifts coaching for high school football. He said his bills add up with gas, paying rent, and school.

“Since I’m in a coaching position, I do not receive my paycheck until after the season,” Johnston said. “I work 30 minutes away, so it takes a toll on my gas bill too.” 

Johnston tries to not stress about school and work. He said he gives himself time to get homework done and have personal time. He said Kent State needs to look at students outside of an academic perspective.

“I think Kent needs to just understand that students have lives outside of school and different things that go on,” Johnston said. 

 

Todd Diacon, president of Kent State, spoke on the matter of the rising rates in education within the university in “Talking with Todd,” a livestream event held Tuesday, Aug. 30. 

“All of public higher education is continually caught in the squeeze of inflationary costs,” Diacon said, “but limits our ability to increase our price.” 

Diacon said the university’s ability to raise prices is very limited and he wants to keep it as such. However, it is hard to find the balance of raising prices within this inflation high and remaining accessible. 

“We don’t want to increase our price because we’re an access institution,” Diacon said. “We want to remain accessible to all students.”

Kent State students face increasing rates whether they live on campus, off-campus, or commute. Student housing and tuition rates are on the rise each year, even throughout the pandemic.

President Joe Biden even announced A three-part plan which promises to cancel $10,000 of student debt for low- to middle-income borrowers. This is in part to help students attend university without fear of drowning in student loans. 

Kent State students have expressed their struggles with lack of help from the university in these all time high rates of inflation. 

Dustin James, 23, is a first-year grad student in Sport Administration. Having transferred from The University of Akron, James said he never knew about any resources available.

“Besides their academic and mental health resources I haven’t heard of any resources, so I haven’t reached out,” James said.

James said he would like to see financial help from the school for people who are struggling. More importantly, students should be made more aware of the resources offered from the university. 

Kent in recent years has started to offer more student resources and programs in order to balance out the pandemic. 

The CARES Center, located in the Kent Student Center, was started up in the fall of 2020. The goal is to help students who are in need of things such as food, toiletries, housing, jobs, and emergency money.

Students can get in contact with them several different ways including stopping by room 219 of the Student Center, or getting in touch online. They even offer forms to fill out about their situation. Members can talk through a student’s well being, give necessities, or get someone in contact with places offering jobs and shelter.

The One Stop for Student Services also provides financial wellness resources to assist students with their finances. This could be through budgeting, financial aid and good credit practices. They achieve this by partnering with CashCourse, a program where they teach finances for the ‘real world’. 

A student can log into the course through their school and watch videos, make budgets, read articles, and even take quizzes to test their knowledge. 

As for off-campus resources, the Kent Social Services has a variety of ways they can support students. They offer food and necessities to those in need and have resources such as helping a student get a job.