By Sarah Severson
Acquiring money by working has always been a concern for BYU students, both today and thirty years ago.
James Rawson, a 1971 BYU alumnus, worked while going to school because it was a necessity to live.
'Now I see kids running their Porches around-they want to enjoy all the fun things in life,' he said.
Today Emily Robb is a junior in math education at BYU, and works in the math lab. She has a scholarship, but still works to pay for other needs - gas, groceries, entertainment and her cell phone.
'I work because I don''t like to depend on my parents - but I don''t spend money excessively,' she said.
These days, there are more af fluent kids, said Sharlene Skidmore, a 1971 BYU alumna who has children attending BYU.
'When I go to their apartments and see the cars they are driving and everything, I just think this is a lot different from when I was at BYU.'
While fashions and fads have changed in the last 30 years, the percentage of students working on campus has consistently stayed the same.
In 1971, 8,000 students were employed part-time on campus-about one third of the 25,000 students, according to the 1971 Banyan yearbook.
As of December 2000, 11,670 students were employed part-time on campus, said Denise Haney, acting manager for student employment. This also accounts for about one third of the student population.
Back in 1971, tuition cost only $300 each semester. In Fall 2001, tuition will cost $1530.
'Because tuition and housing costs were so much less thirty years ago, students earned money in the summers or earned enough working part-time,' said Stephen Olsen, BYU''s federal programs compliance officer. 'This is not the case today.'
At the present time, for a student working part-time with BYU minimum wage, the student would have to work 50 weeks to pay for a year''s worth of tuition, Olsen said.
'Now it is easier to borrow money than work part-time - but it''s not easier to repay the money back,' he said.
In 1973, 600 students received loans. In 1993, 9,800 students were loan recipients - a significant increase in student borrowing, Olsen said.
Since 1993, there has been a decline in the number of students borrowing - most likely because of the church emphasis on avoiding unnecessary debt, he said.