Sophomore anna Wiley searches for recyclables in classroom trash cans. She uses the deposit money for extra cash.

Students strive for needed money

One student hunts for bottles and cans to offset tuition costs, others juggle on-campus jobs

By: Marieke van der Vaart

Posted: 12/4/08

Sophomore Melissa Stewart has logged 30 hours of homework this week. Add in 18 hours of violin practice and she doesn't have much time for a job.

Still, she manages to fit in 12 hours. She has to work if she wants to continue her studies.

From juggling multiple jobs to recycling cans and bottles, many Hillsdale College students scrimp and save for four years to pay for an education that can exceed $100,000.

More than 80 percent of the student body receives financial aid. Dean of Women Diane Philipp said the college's mission and quality of education draw motivated students - they're students who want an education and not a mere diploma, Director of Financial Aid Richard Moeggenberg said.

Hillsdale students principally save money by earning it.

On-campus businesses alone employ 634 students, Business Office Director Kathy Caldwell said. And other students work off-campus.

"We definitely don't shy away from student employment," said Philipp, adding the administration encourages businesses on campus to hire students.

Freshman Casey Holmes works 10 hours a week cooking vegetarian food for Saga and shredding papers for the GOAL office.

Taking advantage of a tuition deferment program that allows students to delay payment up to $500 a semester, Holmes says she hopes to cut her final bill by at least $4,000.

"You can study Plato forever and ever, but someone else is still making your pizza," she said. "I've really enjoyed working in Saga. I always come back smelling like broccoli, though."

For Stewart this semester, working means juggling four jobs - two office and two monitoring jobs.

"I do like being busy," she said. "I just don't like being crazy-busy."

Legs crossed, relaxed, on the table behind the counter of Mauck Hall's entryway desk, Stewart explains the significance of her monitoring jobs.

"After this semester, I have to find some new sources of money because mine will be gone," she said. "When I decided to go to college, I realized over the summer it's not going to be easy. I'm not sure if getting in [another] $20,000 of debt is something I want to do."

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."