The UCSB protests showed how sick we are of student debt

   In the world renown prestige of the utopian United States, the student debt is $1.2 trillion. With college tuition rising to almost an approximate 600% in the past three decades, students are accumulating massive debt. Not to mention the rise in private loans being administered for students to pay these unreasonable costs are adding on to the debt in interest. The lack of ethics by the educational system of charging high tuition costs and administering loans to students with additional interest is the blame for the rising student debt that cripples thousands of students annually.

Photo by Hope Curran

 Students at UCSB are being negatively affected by the immorality of the educational system with tuition costs that are rising at a rapid rate. In 2015, The average costs for an in-state student at UCSB was $29,779, while an out-of-state student could expect a one year cost of $52,657. Let’s put this into perspective, if an out-of-state student at UCSB attended for four years at that annual cost rate, he/she is looking at $210,628 just for a bachelor’s degree. If that student had granted loans administered to them by a private institution and had an interest rate of 7%, that would be an additional $14,743 added on to the already existing sky-high attendance costs.

 Besides the debt posed by the university, another aspect is the fact that students work their lives around the debt. I am not talking about a minor change, I am talking about changing their lifelong ambitions and dreams in regards to debt. Students are going into certain career paths thinking to pay off their debts with the high salary they would earn.

“My life has no future without debt; it ties me down like anchors, not allowing me to live the life I set out to live.” 

Photo by Hope Curran

More students in recent studies are entering professions with higher salaries in hopes to earn a salary to cover their debts. Except, their reasoning is wrong. It cripples them financially.

Entering professions with higher salaries and prestige requires extra education and years of paying tuition fees and interests. The average tuition cost per year for medical school alone is $42,251, for a minimum of four years of medical school would total a colossal $293,564. Students are being crippled by these debts and the idea that certain career paths will make them wealthy when in reality they will destroy them.

 Students at UCSB recognize the issue of high tuition costs that poses massive debt. On November 13, 2015, The Student March took place where students banded together under Storke Tower and protested for the lowering of the cost of their education so they can focus on their passions and not focus on money, to keep education to its purpose of knowledge.

The problem of greed by the university is recognized and can only be challenged by the students themselves. The marching and protests were not violent, students of all races and financial backgrounds came together to take a stance and express that there is in fact a problem and there needs to be changes made to fix the problem.

 The protest is an example of change in society, to not continue the process of rolling over and playing dead, but fighting back. Fighting back against the curriculum that has taken a turn to not have intentions to better the lives of students but to gain capital.

There is a lack of ethics and morality in the educational system that affects the lives of students by crippling them financially causing them to change their ambitions. Education is no longer being viewed for purposes of knowledge but for currency, it’s time for a change.