Student Union
'Freshman 15' More Fiction Than Fat
Who can resist a constant stream of French fries, pizza and ice cream?
Not Gunnar Carroll, a freshman at American University in Washington.
“A burger, fries, a slice of pizza and a Coke,” are his meal of choice, says the transplanted resident of New York City's Brooklyn borough.
With piles of dining-hall food to behold and no one dictating the menu, college freshmen dig in and traditionally see a weight gain.
Or do they?
A study in the Journal of College Health a decade ago suggested that freshman weren’t gaining weight like they used to, giving hope to those studying and fighting American obesity, which in 2008, was 66.9 percent of Americans age 20 and older. Today, the percent of overweight and obese Americans has climbed to 71, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
That leaves fewer than 30 percent of Americans who were not overweight in 2016.
The study authors, Nicole L Mihalopoulos and fellow researchers, found that most freshmen among the 125 they studied did not gain seven or more kilograms, saw no change, or added only a few kilos. The greatest percentage saw no change (33 percent), gained one-half to two kilograms (30 percent), gained three to six kilos (17 percent), or lost weight (15 percent).
The study also revealed that students from “lower socioeconomic backgrounds gain more weight,” but having a college education “consistently decreases weight.” That only lasts until middle age, however.
While some other studies show varying conclusions, a meta-analysis study in February 2017 found the so-called Freshman 15 to be more fable than fact. The term "Freshman 15" is an expression commonly used in the United States to refer to the amount of weight, arbitrarily set at 15 pounds (7 kilograms) gained during a student's first year at college.
“I find that freshman year college attendance is estimated to cause only about a one-pound increase,” wrote economic professor Charles Baum of Middle Tennessee State University, after studying data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). That dataset consists of several thousand individuals, many who have been surveyed over several decades.
Amanda Schlink, a registered dietitian at American University in Washington, concurs that the Freshman 15 may be more urban legend than reality.
“I don’t believe that the Freshman 15 exists to the extent today as it might have been in decades past,” says Schlink. “This decrease in weight gain is likely a combination of both healthy food offerings on college campuses and mindfulness around food choices.”
Healthy vegetarian and gluten-free options are more available. Many fast-food restaurants offer garden salads and vegetables as sides. College students are active. Many freshmen walk or bike more than before, helping to burn off calories.
Dining halls and food service strive to make their meal plan more desirable than instant ramen noodles and mac’n’cheese (macaroni and cheeze), classic dorm-room staples. While they are easy and quick, they are full of calories but empty of nutrition. One package of chicken-flavored ramen noodles fills up one-third of the daily recommended sodium (salt) intake, while providing only about a tenth of the 2,000 calories that is used as the standard intake for an adult.
Another pitfall for first-year students can be energy drinks. The drinks jack up students with excess sugar and caffeine. Monster, a popular energy drink has up to 160 mg of caffeine in a 16-fluid ounce container, compared to the average cup of coffee which contains 95 mg. Convenience does not always mean healthy, and students should read nutrition labels to know what they are putting in their bodies.
Most colleges have well-equipped athletic facilities that encourage students like Erika Linke, a freshman at American University, to stay active. She hits the gym about six days a week to burn off the calories.
“I try to do a five mile (8 kilometer) run or workout everyday,” Linke said. “Having a gym so close and free, especially for a college student is really helpful.”
Schlink suggested focusing on the “Fab Four” when it comes to meals and snacks: carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats and fiber.
“If an individual is consuming food choices from these four groups at meals and snacks, they will be eating well, while balancing their energy needs to fuel their bodies in a healthy way,” she said.
And what about freshmen who report the opposite, losing instead of gaining weight? The Freshman -15? There are two main culprits behind this is subversion of expectations, according to Schlink, has two main sources: time management and stress.
“For some, they are so busy with the academic demands that they may forget to enjoy meals or simply don’t have time for a sit-down meal.” says Schlink.
Donal Gannon contributed to this report.
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Grace period for US student loan payments is over. Here's what you need to know
The 12-month grace period for student loan borrowers ended on September 30. The "on-ramp" period helped borrowers who are struggling to make payments avoid the risk of defaulting and hurting their credit score.
"The end of the on-ramp period means the beginning of the potentially harsh consequences for student loan borrowers who are not able to make payments," said Persis Yu, Deputy Executive Director at the Student Borrower Protection Center.
Around 43 million Americans have student loan debt, amounting to $1.5 trillion. Around eight million of those borrowers had enrolled in the SAVE plan, the newest income-driven repayment plan that extended the eligibility for borrowers to have affordable monthly student loan payments. However, this plan is currently on hold due to legal challenges.
With the on-ramp period and a separate program known as Fresh Start ending and the SAVE plan on hold, student loan borrowers who are struggling to afford their monthly payments have fewer options, added Yu. Student loan borrowers who haven't been able to afford their monthly payments must consider their options to avoid going into default.
If you have student loans, here's what you need to know.
What was the on-ramp period?
The Education Department implemented this grace period to ease the borrower's transition to make payments after a three-year payment pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this year-long period, borrowers were encouraged to keep making payments since interest continued to accumulate.
"Normally, loans will default if you fall about nine months behind on making payments, but during this on-ramp period, missed payments would not move people towards defaulting and then being subject to forced collections. However, if you missed payments, you still be falling behind ultimately on repaying your loans," said Abby Shaforth, director of National Consumer Law Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.
Since this grace period has ended, student loan borrowers who don't make payments will go delinquent or, if their loans are not paid for nine months, go into default.
Borrowers who cannot afford to make payments can apply for deferment or forbearance, which pause payments, though interest continues to accrue.
What happens if I don't make my payments?
Borrowers who can't or don't pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly hurt your credit rating and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.
If a borrower missed one month's payment, they will start receiving email notifications, said Shaforth. Once the loan hasn't been paid for three months, loan servicers notify to the credit reporting agencies that the loan is delinquent, affecting your credit history. Once the borrower hasn't paid the loan for nine months, the loan goes into default.
If you're struggling to pay, advisers first encourage you to check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan, which determines your payments by looking at your expenses. You can see whether you qualify by visiting the Federal Student Aid website. If you've worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives student debt after 10 years.
What happens when a loan goes into default?
When you fall behind on a loan by 270 days — roughly nine months — the loan appears on your credit report as being in default.
Once a loan is in default, it goes into collections. This means the government can garnish wages (without a court order) to go towards paying back the loan, intercept tax refunds, and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit payments.
What if I can't pay?
If your budget doesn't allow you to resume payments, it's important to know how to navigate the possibility of default and delinquency on a student loan. Both can hurt your credit rating, which would make you ineligible for additional aid.
If you're in a short-term financial bind, you may qualify for deferment or forbearance — allowing you to temporarily suspend payment.
To determine whether deferment or forbearance are good options for you, you can contact your loan servicer. One thing to note: interest still accrues during deferment or forbearance. Both can also impact potential loan forgiveness options. Depending on the conditions of your deferment or forbearance, it may make sense to continue paying the interest during the payment suspension.
What is an income-driven repayment plan?
The U.S. Education Department offers several plans for repaying federal student loans. Under the standard plan, borrowers are charged a fixed monthly amount that ensures all their debt will be repaid after 10 years. But if borrowers have difficulty paying that amount, they can enroll in one of several plans that offer lower monthly payments based on income and family size. Those are known as income-driven repayment plans.
Income-driven options have been offered for years and generally cap monthly payments at 10% of a borrower's discretionary income. If a borrower's earnings are low enough, their bill is reduced to $0. And after 20 or 25 years, any remaining debt gets erased.
What is the latest with the SAVE program?
In August, the Supreme Court kept on hold the SAVE plan, the income-driven repayment plan that would have lowered payments for millions of borrowers, while lawsuits make their way through lower courts.
Eight million borrowers who had already enrolled in the SAVE plan don't have to pay their monthly student loan bills until the court case is resolved. Debt that already had been forgiven under the plan was unaffected.
The next court hearing about this case will be held on October 15.
What happened with the Fresh Start program?
The Fresh Start program, which gave benefits to borrowers who were delinquent prior to the pandemic payment pause, also closed on September 30. During this limited program, student loan borrowers who were in default prior to the pandemic were given the opportunity to remove their loans from default, allowing them to enroll in income-driven payment plans, or apply for deferment, among other benefits.
Boston university relaunches journalism curriculum to encompass humanities
As the fall semester begins, a women’s college in Boston, Massachusetts, has retooled its media-related curriculum to best reflect the ideals of the school’s namesake, the late journalist Gwen Ifill.
Simmons University announced it would relaunch the media school as the Gwen Ifill School of Media, Humanities and Social Sciences. A search committee also named media scholar Ammina Kothari as the new dean.
The Ifill School’s new structure expands its media curriculum to include humanities and social sciences. The attributes that defined Ifill also shape a new, holistic approach, “An unwavering commitment to accuracy and objectivity, a nuanced understanding of social and historical context and a compassion-based appreciation of policymaking’s real-world implications,” according to a Simmons press release.
“Folks here are very proud of Gwen’s legacy and want to honor it in many different ways,” said Bert Ifill, Gwen’s brother and a longtime university administrator.
A crucial component of the Ifill School is its emphasis on communications, a field Gwen excelled in, Bert told VOA.
After graduating from Simmons in 1977, she had long careers in both print and television journalism, working for The Baltimore Evening Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC and PBS. She covered seven presidential campaigns and died in 2016 at age 61.
Ifill was the first African American woman to moderate a vice presidential debate and to coanchor a national newscast, “PBS NewsHour.”
“Gwen valued storytelling, and she was an amazing journalist,” Kothari, the school’s new dean, told VOA. “But she also worked really hard to raise awareness about important social issues and to highlight underrepresented voices.”
Abigail Meyers, a current junior at the Ifill School, admires the journalist’s “groundbreaking work” in both journalism and racial justice, she told VOA. Raised near Baltimore, Maryland, Meyers feels a special connection to Ifill’s work for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper.
The school has been instrumental in supporting Meyers’ aspirations to become a professional journalist, she told VOA.
“The support that you get from the faculty and alumni is unlike really any other journalism program,” she said.
Being a double major in communications and political science, Meyers appreciates the new curriculum’s flexibility, as she is able to take classes across different disciplines.
This flexibility will help prime Simmons’ students to achieve success, Kothari said. She believes interdisciplinary training leads to stronger leaders in the world.
“As we think about communications or media, including journalism or social sciences, we need a strong foundation in humanities to understand the historical context for what we see happening today,” Kothari said.
The school’s increased focus on humanities “couldn’t be more timely,” according to the press release. Nearly three of four Americans believe media literacy is an important skill in today’s news landscape, a 2023 Boston University survey found.
However, humanities-focused degree programs like the Ifill School’s receive little recognition. Of all the bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2020, humanities degrees made up less than 10%, a number that has only been decreasing, according to a 2022 MIT study. Meanwhile, science, technology, engineering and math degrees, or STEM, have grown exponentially.
But humanities and STEM shouldn’t be seen as opposites, Kothari said.
She cited the COVID-19 pandemic response as an example. Many precautionary measures such as social distancing were grounded in “amazing scientific research,” but weren’t effectively communicated to the public, she said.
“As we have new knowledge being produced, we also need journalists,” Kothari said. “We need communicators who are able to translate very complex information to the audience so they can see, ‘How does it matter to me? What is the effect for me?’”
Ifill’s legacy is not only celebrated within her namesake school, but also through press freedom organizations around the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom nonprofit, honors Ifill with the annual Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, which is presented to individuals who have “shown extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom,” according to CPJ’s website.
Christophe Deloire, the late director of international media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, received the 2024 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.
“Christophe was one of journalism's greatest-ever champions,” RSF Executive Director Clayton Weimers told VOA in an email. “There was hardly a fight or an advance in press freedom in the past decade that he wasn't a part of, if not leading.”
As Ifill’s legacy spreads, there is one person who couldn’t be prouder: her brother, Bert. He told VOA it often seems as though his full-time job is “to talk nicely about Gwen.”
“It's always a great pleasure and honor for me to talk about her and to talk about her legacy, not only as obviously a very skilled journalist, but as an extraordinary mentor and confidant,” he said.
China’s youth unemployment fuels rise in postgraduate studies
Youth unemployment in China climbed to nearly 19% in August, its highest level so far this year, according to official data. Analysts say that the higher level of youth unemployment is driving more college graduates to enroll in graduate schools to escape the job search as the world’s second-largest economy struggles.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, or NBS, late last week, the unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds rose from 17.1% in July to 18.8% in August. One big reason for the uptick in joblessness, the NBS said, is that nearly 12 million students graduated from Chinese universities this June, heightening competition in an already tough job market.
Postgraduates overtake graduates
“The job market has shrunk, and at the same time there are still so many graduates. Too many people are idling every day,” said Lin Chan-Hui, an assistant professor of the General Education Center at Feng Chia University in Taiwan. “Another way out is to return to school to study further and temporarily escape the competitive workplace.”
Some Chinese universities say they are seeing more postgraduate students than undergraduates.
According to the state-backed digital publication The Paper, the number of graduate students at Lanzhou University exceeded the total number of undergraduate students for the first time. Lanzhou University is located in the capital of northwestern China’s Gansu Province.
In eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province, the Zhejiang University of Technology shows 5,382 new graduate students were admitted this year, beating out the number of new undergraduate students by 40.
The trend was already picking up at more famous Chinese universities last year.
Last December, Beijing’s Tsinghua University said the number of undergraduate freshmen in the previous academic year was 3,760, while the number of master's and doctoral students was 12,069.
Shanghai’s Fudan University in October 2023 reported 15,000 undergraduate students and nearly 37,000 graduate students.
China's Ministry of Education said that last year there were more than 47 million people enrolled in higher education institutes, 1.3 million were graduate students, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Lei, a higher education consultant in Shenzhen, who due to the sensitivity of the subject only gave his surname, told VOA the trend of higher education is moving toward "college graduates who don’t go to graduate school would immediately become unemployed" amid China's economic slowdown.
"On one hand, studying in graduate school can really help you find a job. On the other hand, it’s also an avoidance mentality,” Lei said.
Wandering masters and doctors
Feng Chia University’s Lin said that having an undergraduate degree is not enough in fields like technological innovation and scientific research, so it is still necessary to get a postgraduate degree in certain fields.
On the other hand, he said, China has too many people getting doctorates and master’s degrees and not enough technical and vocational education so there will be "fierce competition for upper-level work, but no one does the lower-level work." Highly educated young people are not willing to engage in grassroots work, Lin said, so there will be more and more "wandering masters and doctors."
Lin said the geopolitical tension between China and the U.S. has also made studying abroad for a postgraduate degree harder, so more students choose a domestic one instead.
Chinese netizens seem to agree that waiting for the job market to improve is their best hope.
A Hunan netizen on China’s Weibo social media platform under the name "Da Ke Ya Tang" said: "The market will not be able to provide so many jobs in the foreseeable future, so we have to leave the problem to the future."
"If colleges and universities cannot adapt to the country's demand for innovative and pioneering talents and reform the way students are trained, more employment pressure may accumulate in society in a few years," writer Wang Guojin said in a post on Weibo.
COVID students coping?
A PhD student in Shanghai who, due to the sensitivity of the subject, only gave his surname Zeng, told VOA the increase in master's and doctoral students is also because many graduate students went to college during the COVID-19 pandemic and are struggling to adapt. Zeng blames remote learning for their struggles with social interaction and the skills needed to compete in the job market.
"This group of college students obviously lacks some socialization skills, at least in recruitment interviews,” Zeng said. “They can't reach the same level as the previous students.”
Zeng adds that monthly stipends for master's and doctoral students ranges from roughly $143 to $700 and Chinese universities encourage entrepreneurship by providing funds to start small projects through competitions.
“Who wouldn’t want to continue their studies and earn money at the same time?” she asked.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Many US college students eligible for federal food money
Many college students in the United States are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known as food stamps, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But often, students don’t take advantage of the program because of complicated rules or a lack of awareness. U.S. News and World Report explains who can enroll and how to get benefits. (September 2024)
Islamic group files lawsuit against University of Georgia
The chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the U.S. state of Georgia filed a lawsuit against the University of Georgia alleging anti-Muslim discrimination.
The lawsuit says students associated with a group advocating for Palestinian justice have been the target of harassment on campus, and the university took no meaningful action to end the harassment, Atlanta News First reported. (September 2024)
