Western Kentucky University - Talisman Yearbook (Bowling Green, KY)

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26 Consu One family’s experience with The rising cost of college A series of six 16 X 20 portraits hang in the hallway of the Wendell Beeler farm- house in Grayson County and the sizes of the people in the photographs, the family’s children, resemble stairsteps. Now, just as those portraits appeared on the wall one-by-one, the three oldest Beelers have come to college, and the family is in a perfect position to examine how college costs have increased over a three-year period. Warren, 21, who has earned a bachelor of science degree i in animal science and is now working on a teaching certificate, entered Western in the summer of 1973 after graduating from Caneyville High School. Cindy, 20, an elementary education major with a minor in special education, enrolled in the fall of 1974. She, too, graduated from Caneyville High. By AVERAGE YEARLY INCOME FROM OTHER SOURCES [| AVERAGE YEARLY INCOME PER KENTUCKY FARM 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 YEAR AVERAGE YEARLY INCOME IN DOLLARS mer Report Ginger, 19, a physical education major, started college the next fall after graduat ing from Grayson County High. (Caney ville High consolidated with Leitchfield and Clarkson Highs in 1974.) The family lives on a 620-acre dairy farm in a community named Spring Lick, and Mr. Beeler milks 60 cows twice a day. The success of that enterprise has made a lot of the difference in the oppor tunity for the Beelers to attend college. The family has also witnessed some dif ferences in the costs each of the children has faced. The family has been helped by the fact that the children chose Western for col- lege. A glossary of colleges and universi- ties cited Western as having the lowest tuition fee in the state except Murray in 1974-75. In that year an average year of school COST IN DOLLARS ag DZ ZC 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 ie 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 THE RISING COST OF COLLEGE PER STUDENT cost $1450 at Western compared to $2236 at University of Kentucky. “The fall 1976 semester took more than any of the four that they've all been in,” said Mrs. Beeler. “We haven't ap- plied for any aid other than scholarships because Wendell (Mr. Beeler) says it’s hard to get when you own land.” Warren earned a scholarship in 1973 for tuition and books which carried over through his second semester. Mrs. Beeler said they put $435 in his bank account that fall to cover his other expenses. His expenses increased steadily the next semester partially because he began pledging Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. By fall 1974 the agriculture major needed $700 to cover expenses. In the same fall when Cindy came to college her parents put $564 in her ex- pense account. Cindy also won a scholar-

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Oherry Musgrave locked the door to room 500 in McCormack Hall, and car- ried her suitcase, calculus book and laun- dry bag to the elevator. Outside, she joined dozens of suitcasers loading car trunks and backseats as they scurried to clear the driveway and hit the Interstate. For some it was the third weekend home since school had started. For the Owensboro freshman, Sept. 17 was the first trek home since the move to West- ern and the goodbyes to her parents. At 1:23 p.m., Sherry, her brother Mar- cus and two hometown buddies left cam- us, and 81 minutes later the brunette ugged her poodle, Corky, and began a non-stop conversation with her mother about the 18th birthday and Labor Day weekends she spent away from home. “I was supposed to come home Labor Day but Marcus had to work,” Sherry explained. Her brother, a junior comput- er science major, is a resident assistant at Hugh Poland Hall. “I couldn't sleep Thursday night. I re- alized I was going home and I couldn't wait to get there.” First of all, Sherry toured her home again. “The house didn’t look the same at all. It‘’d been so long since I'd seen it,” Sherry said. “My clothes weren’t in the closet and it was neat.” The fresh- man said she has become accustomed to her dorm room where things sometimes get messy. Sherry’s father is an electrician who works in Petersburg, Ind., so the family ate a late dinner together. Meanwhile, Sherry described her first weeks at col- lege to her mother. “You can’t always write what you want to say,” the fresh- man said. She told her attentive mother about classes and dorm life. “I have to spend at least two hours on calculus each day, and I got a 45 out of 50 on an English test,” she chattered. As for campus life, Sherry said she and’ her friends ate most of their meals in the dormitory. “But one night we went to Ireland’s. You bought one meal and got one free. Boy, they gave us a lot of cou- pons that first week,” she explained. According to Sherry, her mother paid special attention to her and her brother since they had not been home in a lon time. “She cooked my favorite eae roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy. “My dad was glad to see us and he asked me about my classes, but he doesn’t talk a lot,” she explained. Friday night, Sherry and Marcus met some friends from Daviess County High School at a home football game against Butler Co. “I got so excited seeing them all at once. Some of my friends who are at UK were home and we began com- paring schools. They said a lot of people there aren’t friendly and some were having trouble meeting people and making friends.” Sherry also talked to her preacher and his wife and her high school teachers, including a government instructor who calls her ‘Muskrat.’ “I saw him coming. He’s a big tease and asked me if I was making all A’s.” Saturday, Sherry visited her dentist, bought some groceries and washed and ironed her clothes. Before long it was 4 p.m. and the Mus- graves had to return to Western so Mar- cus could work during open house. “It went by so fast. I wanted to stay until Sunday,” she said. “Our parents asked when we were coming back. They told us not to study too hard and to be sure and write. They said they’d be com- ing down in a couple of weeks.” Two hours later, Sherry was in room 500 again, but her roommate was not back yet. “Here I had all this stuff to bring up and she wasn’t back yet. At first it was kinda lonely, but after I’d been here awhile it was just like it was before.” Sherry said she likes college but en- joyed that first weekend home. “You re- alize how much you miss something when you don’t have it. You appreciate something like your Mom cooking the meals when it hasn’t been there.” As for Mr. and Mrs. Musgrave’s reac- tion to their children’s homecoming, Mrs. Musgrave said she prepared very little. “I had gone to Illinois for five days to take care of my mother who had gotten home from the hospital after hav- ing surgery.” Mrs. Musgrave said Sherry had changed some since starting college. “We believe she realizes more what we are trying to do for her by being able to let her go to college. We believe being around students and the many different ways each one has, has a lot to do with the change. I was glad to hear she was attending Bible study in the dorm as she went to Wednesday night prayer meet- ing when home. She said it was ‘a good group to be with.’ ” Sherry’s mother said the parent-child relationship changes when the child goes away to mal “You don’t realize ho much they do and really appreciate it, like you should, until they leave,” she explained. Mrs. Musgrave said she has no special plans for fine weekends with her daughter at home. “We just want to make it an enjoyable one for her and just be ourselves as we tried to do over the past weekend.” — CONNIE HOLMAN (1) Textbook prices and textbook content were some of the first subjects Sherry and her dad Ansel dis- cussed Friday night. Sherry told her dad about the expensive textbooks and her calculus homework which takes about two hours each day. An hour after retouring her home in Daviess County home, Sherry, her mother and Corky moved outdoors to inspect the mums Mrs. Mus- grave had grown for the first time while her daugh- ter was away at school in Bowling Green. First Weekend Home

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oa cecemcaslit ship which paid $150 on tuition in both the fall and spring. After that first year, however, she had no scholarship. By the next fall the Beelers had to de- posit $650 for Ginger’s fall semester which was an increase of $86 from Cindy’s first semester. Ginger’s following semester cost ap- proximately $725 and the fall, 1976 se- mester cost the sophomore $800, an in- crease of $150 from her first semester. It was helpful for the family that fall when Warren became employed at Pioneer Hybrid International Incorpo- rated at Smiths Grove and became more self-reliant. Changes in textbook costs were also very noticeable for the girls in particular. “T paid $54.12 for books in my first se- mester,” Cindy said. “This last semester I spent $113.18. “Ginger’s increase from last year isn’t that much but she'll probably really no- tice it by next spring,” she continued. -“In her first semester she paid $69.14 and this fall it was only $73.08.” Mrs. Beeler chuckled when she heard the discussion about her daughters’ books. “I can tell you about one thin that has made a difference,” she ml “Ginger won’t stand in the bookstore lines after registration so when she goes to get books she has to buy new ones.” But talk about textbooks costs was re- placed by talk of increased food costs. “T have really been able to tell a differ- ence in that,” Mrs. Beeler said. “I try to send them a lot of staples from home but still the costs are high.” (A vegetable gar- den is a family project each summer.) “Cindy and her roommate go to the rocery about once every week and one- Pale, and eat most of their meals in the dorm,” the mother continued. “She said she doesn’t eat out very much. Just about once every three weeks.” Mrs. Beeler said, “Ginger has to eat alone most of the time and that makes it more expensive even to cook in the dorm. She and her roommate buy their groceries separately, and she eats a lot of meals at the student center.” Dormitory cost is still another area where the family has faced increase. “The dorm fee has gone up twice since Cindy started,” Mrs. Beeler said. “At first it was $154, then $169 and now $184. It hasn’t been increased since Ginger has been in school.” (The Board of Regents voted to increase the fee $21 at the Janu- ary meeting. The increase will become ibgien in the fall of 1977.) But the family has worked together to make the costs easier, Mrs. Beeler said. “Warren and Cindy have both had jobs to help out with paying for their educa- tion,” she said. “We have paid the initial amount for each of them each semester, but they have paid us back a lot. “We didn’t set down any strict rules about spending when they went to col- lege, but we have told them to watch spending on clothes,” she said. “We don’t want them to feel like they don’t have a penny to spend for anything, and we have encouraged them to go out and do things.” The mother also said the three stu- dents have been very good about han- dling the finances. “They have all been pretty saving. They don’t spend as much as some kids,” she said. “They know that others are coming on and need to be thrifty.” And there is another coming on very quickly. Terri, a senior at Grayson Coun- ty, is scheduled to enroll at Western in he fall of 1977. She has already applied for nursing school. It is possible that the — family may have four in school next fall. The fifth Beeler, Charlie, a high school junior, plans to start in the falf of 1978. Chris, the last of the children, is a little farther beind as a 7th grader at Grayson County Middle erhok “With this many (children) we always wonder where the money will come from,” Mrs. ‘Beeler said. “Sometimes I wonder how we are going to do it, but we have always managed ones the money when the time came.” And when the time comes for the last person in the portraits to graduate from college, the wondering will be over. — DONNA BUCKLES () Left — Cindy and Ginger Béeler Above — Warren Beeler 27 Consumer Report