Standing outside the Carolina Building on the campus of Forsyth Technical Community College, Ethan Meredith and a few of his classmates looked to be right out of central casting's idea of what college kids ought to look like.
There were four of them, all wearing standard issue T-shirts, jeans and a hint of whiskers on their chins. Class wasn't due to begin for another few minutes, so they'd congregated just outside a shop door to talk.
Finances and paying for school surely had to rank near the top of things they'd prefer not to discuss — just after root canals and spring fashion shows. And yet when a stranger with a notepad wandered up to ask questions about accessing student loans at the community college, Meredith waded right in.
"Community college (students) always seem to get the bad end of the stick," he said. "It seems like a lot of the time we're not recognized as 'real' students at 'real' colleges. I have plenty to say. Fire away."
More access, not less
Questions (and answers) about student loans are rooted in Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of a bill that would have allowed individual community college campuses such as Forsyth Tech to opt out of participating in the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program. Sandwiched as it was between the budget and hardball tactics over the extension of unemployment benefits, Perdue's veto went almost unnoticed.
Some community colleges, FTCC included, wanted that opt-out for a variety of reasons. Notable among them is a federal provision that cuts schools off from other programs — including access to grant money — if loan-taking students have a high rate of default. The colleges also feared that allowing access to that money through their financial aid offices would result in students getting in over their heads.
The flip side of the equation comes from a nonprofit called the Institute for College Access and Success, which says that North Carolina ranks last among the states in student access to loans.
In these trying times, the group says, more students — not fewer — should learn new skills.
'Nice to have the option'
Outside welding class, Meredith and his friends came down on the side of greater access to school by whatever means necessary.
"I'd think that it's better to have more options," said student Robby Clayton, 20, who's paying his own way without loans.
Meredith, who's paying for school out of savings from his full-time job, said he can understand the college's concerns about overloading debt and maybe even saving the irresponsible from themselves, but decisions about debt are best left to the individual.
Like it or not, community colleges across the state are now preparing to help students apply for federal loans.
"Honestly, I don't like taking out loans, but it'd be nice to have the option and be able to make up my own mind," Meredith said.
Individual responsibility. What a concept.
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