La Salle community no exception to recession

By Ashley Arnold
Collegian Reporter
April 2, 2009

Interviews across La Salle's campus indicate that students are left discouraged and broke as a result of the recession. The hardships reported by students include parents and relatives who were laid off, student cut backs for summer jobs, and the need to budget money more cautiously than in the past.

Krista Sinclair, a sophomore communication and sociology major, said that her mom was recently laid off from her clerical job at Frankford Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia. Sinclair said that, despite her mom being laid off, she still feels financially secure, due in part to her father’s stable job as the chief of police for the city of Nazareth.

To help her family save money, Sinclair has decided to live at home next year instead of living on-campus. She has also made personal cutbacks, including canceling her credit card because, “I need to watch frivolous spending,” she said.

Sinclair’s advice to other college students regarding the recession is to “vary your course load, so you have many options for the future.”

Options are a commodity that most college students feel are very limited nowadays.

Jessica Alsis, a senior social work major, expressed her concern for finding a job when she graduates in two months.

“I feel discouraged with the state of the economy, and I feel discouraged about staying in school to get my master's,” Alsis said.

With a look of desperation across her face, Alsis said she would stay in school to get her masters and hope that the economy improves by the time she is finished.

“I decided to get my masters in occupational therapy, instead of social work, because I have a chance of making more money,” she said.

Adding to her discouraging feelings, Alsis said her father lost $8,000 of his retirement fund. In order to help her family financially, she plans to waitress full time during the summer to help pay for graduate school.

On a more positive note, the state of the economy is helping students boost their work ethic for fear of losing their jobs.

“I know I need to increase my work performance and improve my work ethic so I keep my summer job,” said Kelvin Hamlett, a sophomore communication major. Hamlett works as a floor associate at Merritt Athletic, a gym in his hometown of Queens, N.Y.

The economy’s unemployment rate has mounted to a record high of 7.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Companies downsizing has affected many students’ relatives and has resulted in changes in lifestyles.

“My brother got laid off, because his company needed to downsize,” said Jackie Terrill, a junior nursing major. “Now, my brother is in between jobs and is struggling to find a dependable job.”

Eleanora Robinson, a sophomore biology and psychology major, shared another account of layoffs.

“My brother-in-law lost his job and has had to take his three children out of private school and put them in public school because of the high costs,” Robinson said.

arnolda4@student.lasalle.edu