I know this board is willing to discuss all things-App State but it is also mostly about App athletics. I certainly do not want to discourage Yosef Club donations but I also want to strongly encourage donations to the general Appalachian Fund.

I just got off the phone with a current App student and after the pleasantries we got around to the expected donation pitch. I gave what I could.

My two youngest twin daughters would have both been great students at App and neither was offered much scholarship money. In fact both are going to private colleges and the combined debt for both of them is less than just the parental debt my wife and I took on for the oldest daughter to attend App (and this is not counting the oldest daughter's own debt.) App State is attracting some great students but they are also losing some great students due to a small endowment that limits the amount of scholarship money offered to students that present very competitively. Please give to the general Appalachian Fund in my appeal.

(I hope I am not coming across negatively, as that is not my purpose, but I do know first hand the need for scholarship dollars and what is available.)

An idea - if you don’t have the money or having to get student loans first two years, community colleges should be required first choice!!!

9Steelman wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 9:58 pm

An idea - if you don’t have the money or having to get student loans first two years, community colleges should be required first choice!!!

That is an idea and something I even mention to my students.

With that said, the way transfers work not everything will transfer 100% of the time. And for some majors I just don't see it working without spending more time in school. Given the scope and sequence of some of the science majors that I am familiar with you need 4 years to get it all in in a manner that will work for learning the material in a manner than can work.

There is also the philosophical idea that why should only the rich get the pleasure of getting to experience 4 years of college at college. Not knocking community colleges but there is something to be said for being on your own for the first time and dealing with life, even in the protected arena of a university.

Once student loan debt becomes eligible to be forgiven through bankruptcy, the price of public institutions will decrease by upwards of 70%. It will be a bad time for the economy, but in the long run the cost of college will drop significantly and stay low. It will be harder to get loans for majors that do not produce paying jobs, but that's how it should be. The sooner we forgive the loans we have, the smaller the economic impact will be. Either way, could be the next financial crisis, which is why the government is hesitant to make the move.

Given the amount of debt students are carrying that is also holding back the economy such as purchasing homes and all variety of consumer goods. I know I will not be purchasing a car for a few more years until I pay down my kids debt. Getting rid of that would open up other uses for the money spent. They could at least not charge such high interest rates.

But getting back to my original post, the Appalachian Fund needs to grow and grow a lot. UNCG is over 2.5x times our endowment, and not much bigger with student enrollment. A&T is about 60% of our endowment but less than 60% or our enrollment.