The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 2, 1991 - Page 7
College
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -
Middle-class college students are
feeling the crunch of credit cards
e bills as they try to supplement their
tuition and living expenses, accord-
ing to student advocacy groups.
"It's a vicious circle and we're
very worried about that," Selena
Dong, legislative director of the
U.S. Student Association in
Washington, D.C., told Booth
Newspapers. "It's not cars or
stereos they've put on thcir credit
cards but college costs."~
Results of a survey show the ex-
tent of credit card debts among 400
students at Eastern Michigan
University, Michigan State
University and the University of
Detroit Mercy.
Ten percent of the students re-
ported outstanding credit bills of
more than $700 from educational or
students face credit woes
living expenses; 5 percent had more
than $1,000. The average debt was
$897.
Theftelephone survey was over-
seen by the Michigan Student
Education Fund, which conducts re-
search for a coalition that lobbies on
can get the expenses down," said
Jan, 23, a University student at the
Flint campus who didn't want her
real name used for fear the publicity
would hurt her credit rating.
Jan has accumulated a $1,000-
plus debt from her Mastercard, four
'It's a vicious circle and we're very worried
about that ... It's not cars or stereos they've
put on their credit cards but college costs'
-Selena Dong
Legislative Director
U.S. Student Association
The $2,200 she receives in finan-
cial aid every term doesn't cover
miscellaneous living expenses in
addition to her tuition, books, and
fees.
Student advocacy groups contend
Jan's case and that of others are evi-
dence of the squeeze the middle
class feels over educational costs
and its members' lack of access to
federal grants.
Results of the survey shows that
students are taking longer to get de-
grees because of the high cost of ed-
ucation and financial pressure, said
Peter Lutz, the fund's research di-
rector.
"We found out that students
more and more are taking on unbe-
lievable portions of debt through
credit cards and student loans sim-
ply because college education has
become so expensive," Lutz said.
FT
behalf of students at 15 state public
universities.
Booth didn't say when the survey
was conducted, whether subjects
were selected randomly or what the
margin of error was on the results.
"At this point, I don't see how I
...........
department store, and four gasoline
cards.
Jan, who comes from a middle-
class Clarkston family, told Booth
she has used her card to charge
school books, clothes, food, trans-
portation and medical expenses.
The 1991:-92
.SAL ARY SUPPLEMENT
is nowavaiably
t th
ST UD.E NT PUBLICATIONS
.BUILDING
.2 Maynard
9005:0Mon -Fri.
$6_per cop~y $8 mnailed
Salary Supplemzents Are !Not Refundable
Tide brings narcotics,
[CHIGAN
JE
AILY
changes to
BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua (AP)
- From Monkey Point to Pearl
Lagoon, packages of narcotics wash
onto the beaches of Nicaragua's
Atlantic shore, the newest cocaine
coast of Colombian drug lords.
What's more, cocaine and crack
are addicting a people so innocent
that seven once died from eating co-
caine they mistook for flour.
"The problem right now is not
major, but it's here and this is still
an undeveloped market," said Roger
kamirez, Bluefields' police chief.
"Drugs are an evil that corrupts the
soul. We are trying to stop them."
Drug traffickers steered clear of
Nicaragua during most of the 1980s,
Nicaragua
when the Sandinistas ruled and were
fighting U.S.-supported Contra
rebels. They feared anyone caught
with drugs would be branded a CIA
spy and thrown in jail.
"Back then, the trail ended in
Costa Rica and began again in
Honduras," said Fred Villareal, the
U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration officer in charge of
Nicaragua.
Things changed, officials say, af-
ter the Sandinistas lost the 1990
elections and the war ended. The
drug lords turned their eyes to
Nicaragua, particularly the remote,
sparsely populated Atlantic coast.
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44
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