Spring Break
Students strive for needed money
One student hunts for bottles and cans to offset tuition costs, others juggle on-campus jobs
Marieke van der Vaart
Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Arts
Even coming up with loose change to pad a budget with a little extra cash takes time.
Sophomore Anna Wiley earns extra spending money by collecting cans and glass bottles to recycle.
For 30 minutes a few times a week Wiley makes a round of campus buildings - classroom buildings in particular - peering into trash bins for bottles and cans to recycle. Her rounds can bring in a substantial amount of pocket money, she said.
"I'm trying to save the penguins," she tells a curious onlooker.
Wiley says she can earn upwards of $20 collecting energy drinks and soda pop cans. Lane's classrooms are particularly good sources, she notes, because of long economics lectures that take place in the basement and inspire students to binge on energy drinks.
Her biggest competition is a homeless man who also cycles the campus looking for recyclables.
Hillsdale students' dedication to secure their educations is nothing new, says Financial Aid Senior Counselor Jemie Hannon.
"The majority of our students have to work to pay for school," she said. "Students will do whatever they can and have to, to help their families pay for their education. They're not too proud to dig ditches. I don't know how students do it here."
For the future, students and faculty alike are eying the credit crisis warily, expecting students next year to feel pressure from tightening loans and scarcer credit options.
"The greatest effect of the economic conditions have yet to be felt," Moeggenberg said. "Three of our four outside lenders have gone away recently. The lending industry is a wreck now."
The dean of women is similarly apprehensive.
"We still don't know the effect this credit crunch will have on the student body of America," she said.
For some students, like Stewart, her future studies raise serious questions that need to be answered.
"I already took three years off - I would just hate to take off more time," she said.
The Financial Aid Office, the Business Office and the Offices of the Deans are always open to helping students, though.
"In my 20 years of being here, there are students who love Hillsdale College and have to look at every way possible to be here," Caldwell said. "I try to help every student who comes in my office. If a parent is willing to work with us, we're more than willing to work with them."
Sophomore Anna Wiley earns extra spending money by collecting cans and glass bottles to recycle.
For 30 minutes a few times a week Wiley makes a round of campus buildings - classroom buildings in particular - peering into trash bins for bottles and cans to recycle. Her rounds can bring in a substantial amount of pocket money, she said.
"I'm trying to save the penguins," she tells a curious onlooker.
Wiley says she can earn upwards of $20 collecting energy drinks and soda pop cans. Lane's classrooms are particularly good sources, she notes, because of long economics lectures that take place in the basement and inspire students to binge on energy drinks.
Her biggest competition is a homeless man who also cycles the campus looking for recyclables.
Hillsdale students' dedication to secure their educations is nothing new, says Financial Aid Senior Counselor Jemie Hannon.
"The majority of our students have to work to pay for school," she said. "Students will do whatever they can and have to, to help their families pay for their education. They're not too proud to dig ditches. I don't know how students do it here."
For the future, students and faculty alike are eying the credit crisis warily, expecting students next year to feel pressure from tightening loans and scarcer credit options.
"The greatest effect of the economic conditions have yet to be felt," Moeggenberg said. "Three of our four outside lenders have gone away recently. The lending industry is a wreck now."
The dean of women is similarly apprehensive.
"We still don't know the effect this credit crunch will have on the student body of America," she said.
For some students, like Stewart, her future studies raise serious questions that need to be answered.
"I already took three years off - I would just hate to take off more time," she said.
The Financial Aid Office, the Business Office and the Offices of the Deans are always open to helping students, though.
"In my 20 years of being here, there are students who love Hillsdale College and have to look at every way possible to be here," Caldwell said. "I try to help every student who comes in my office. If a parent is willing to work with us, we're more than willing to work with them."
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