BY MORGAN YOUNG and SAMANTHA COSSICK ; Staff writers
PUBLIC OPINION

More area students are walking across the graduation stage with thousands of dollars in student loan debt, entering the job market while the economy is struggling and unemployment is relatively high.

With the cost of college increasing every year and a possible 5 percent cut to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), which admin-isters student financial aid programs, students must make hard choices about how they will pay for their education.

Even with a 3.5 grade point average, Shippensburg University sophomore Danyah Morgan, Baltimore, said he couldn’t get scholarship or grant money to help pay for college.

Now, the criminal justice major has around $60,000 in student loan debt already and anticipates having between $105,000 and $110,000 by the time he graduates.

According to the Project on Student Debt, 2010 Pennsylvania college graduates with debt averaged $28,500 in student loans, the fifth-highest in the country. The national average for student loan debt for that year was $25,250, with unemployment for recent graduates increasing from 8.7 percent in 2009 to 9.1 percent in 2010.

Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed state budget earlier this month, forecasting a 20 percent cut or $82 million in state funding for Shippensburg University and the 13 other universities in the state system.

In addition, PHEAA would receive around $19 million less than the $380 million it received for the current school year.

The financial aid provider has few choices for dealing with the cuts if implemented, according to Ken Marshall, spokesperson for the State System of Higher Education.

“We would be concerned if (the cuts) would happen because it would affect the students – it could either reduce the amount that students who are eligible would receive; or there could be fewer people who would be eligible for financial aid,” he said.

PHEAA is planning to contribute $50 million from its expected student loan servicing earnings to supplement the governor’s proposed $361 million appropriation.

‘It looks like the average grant will be just shy of $4,100 (under the proposed budget), said Tim Eller, press secretary for the state Department of Education.

The proposed cuts came a month after the governor requested a mid-year, 3 percent budget freeze for the State System of Higher Education. It has been seven months since he signed a budget reducing funding for the system by 18 percent.

The total loss is about $175 million since Corbett took office, according to the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties.

Steve Hicks, APSCUF president, said the group has concerns about the financial burden on students.

“We’re in a cycle where it seems everyone expects students to generate more debt,” he said. “(Debt) changes what you do with your life.” The current state of the national economy and job market is prompting some students to put greater emphasis on employment potential and financial aid availability when deciding where to go to school and what to study.

According to the Project on Student Debt, in 2010 Pennsylvania graduates with college debt averaged $28,500 in student loans, the fifth highest in the country.

Wilson College President Barbara Mistick said the No. 1 question she receives from college students is, “Why does it cost so much?” “For many students, they’re struggling with that personally,” she said. “It’s an issue for students because when they leave school, they have to immediately start paying back their student loan debt. They have to make sure the jobs that they get allow them sufficient income to pay off their debt.”

Last year, the private college gave students more than $5 million in scholarship assistance, an increase from $3.2 million in the 2006-07 school year.

When it came time to look at colleges, Jennifer Gipe, a Wilson College freshman, said she looked into the private college as well as Shippensburg University but settled on Wilson, where she studies psychology.

“I’d rather go to a small college and pay more,” she said.

Gipe currently has two scholarships, grant aid, and participates in a work study program, in which half of her earnings go toward her tuition. She also receives help from her parents.

Even so, Gipe still expects to have $50,000 in student loan debt by the time she graduates.

For some of the students who already have debt, finding a career they love, rather than one that will pay the bills, is more important.

Emily Lewis, a Huntingdon native and junior at SU, said that while she feels the weight of her debts, she not going to just take the first job she sees right out of school.

“I’m worrying about finding a job I like,” she said. “If I don’t, I’ve completely wasted my time and $40,000.”

Morgan said he picked his major based on what he wanted to do, not on how much jobs in the field pay. But he hopes to get a national security job, which would pay a bit more.

“I just don’t see myself doing anything else,” he said.

He said he’s thought “somewhat” about how he’s going to pay off his student loan debt, but won’t be able to plan how he’ll pay it until he gets into the job market. “(My loans aren’t) going to get paid off for a while because I have to go to another school for four years,” Gipe said. “Getting into the field to help people is more what I’m worried about than paying back loans.”

For one SU student, a personal tragedy compounded into a financial one as well.

Telfreda Carden, a Philadelphia native and junior sociology/anthropology major at the school lost her father last month, midsemester. Carden’s father was planning to pay her student loans, which she estimated at more than $30,000.

“The loan bounced back to me (when he died),” she said. “I’ll worry about it when (I graduate).”

Carden said she thought about not coming back to school after her father’s passing, but knew that wasn’t an option.

“I wouldn’t want to let him down by not going,” she said.

Mistick said the No. 1 thing she’s seen students focus on recently is finishing their education as quickly as possible, since they realize that every year will increase their debt level.

“Making access to education affordable is extremely important.The conversation about not getting a degree I think, in many ways, is short-sighted,” she said. “From a policy perspective, we need to be finding more ways to make education more affordable for students.”

Wilson College’s board of trustees voted late last month to not raise tuition for the 2012-13 school year, agreeing to Mistick’s recommendation to freeze it at the current year’s rate of $28,745.

———- Morgan Young can be reached at myoung@shipnewsnow.com and 262-4753, or follow her on Twitter @ShipNewsGirl.