Students at the University of Wyoming have conflicting feelings about the Biden Administration’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan, but seemingly agree it’s a limited, short term fix to a larger problem.
“I have mixed opinions,” Bryleigh Morrison, a freshman majoring in Design and Merchandising, said. “I think, in some situations, it’s really beneficial because some people really don’t have the resources to pay for the education they deserve to have, but in others I think it can be abused.”
Many students on campus feel as though taking out a student loan is a personal choice that brings responsibility, and that the government should not be removing that responsibility.
“I think that there’s a sense of personal responsibility and if I had to take out loans, I have to accept that,” Lizzie Uhler, a sophomore majoring in Physical Education, said.
Some students feel loan forgiveness is not fair for those who refused student loans or already paid them off.
“I’m torn because as somebody who didn’t have loans or coming from a perspective of if I did have loans and paid them off; I did what was ‘right,’ and took out loans and paid them off,” said Keegan Cryder, a recent graduate.
On the other hand, many of these students want to see a better future for those who follow them.
“At the same time, just because I did that doesn’t mean I want other people to go through hard times, taking out debt, then living under debt,” Cryder said.
Some students feel crippled by their student loans, and feel as though they may never be able to comfortably pay back their student loans without support.
“I probably couldn’t repay my loans comfortably,” Hannah Brown, a Senior majoring in Physics, said. “If I get the loan forgiveness, I think I will. If I budget and have a good career starting out, I could potentially, but I know for the first couple of years out of college, I’ll be on a really tight budget”
Of the students the Branding Iron spoke with, none voiced that they were ‘upset’ or had primarily negative feelings about student loan forgiveness, but all of them voiced concerns that attending college, in many cases, is too expensive.
“There are some students who went to med school and have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, so that $10,000 is not making a huge dent in their student loans, “ Kyra Wulff, a recent
UW graduate, said. “I do think we have a big student debt crisis.”
Many students feel as though significant change should be made.
“I think [student loan forgiveness] is not what the world wants, or what the US wants to hear at this point in time just because of all that has happened; they want direct change,” Laine Smith, a Senior majoring in Kinesiology, said. “All these little band-aids like this, cause a bigger issue.”
