Aaron Triolo
Professor Goeller
Research in the Disciplines: College!
March, 2016
Research Proposal
Working Title: The Privatization of Stress
Topic
I intend to show, through the use of my sources, that the privatization of higher education is affecting the mental health as well as the future prospects of both students and post-students negatively. The main controversy that I will be discussing is privatization in general. The article written by Bob Meister, "Debt and Taxes: Can the Financial Industry Save Public Universities?” explains the controversies behind privatization, while explaining its effects on tuition and students. Besides that, I intend to provide evidence showing how the privatization of higher education is negatively affecting students.
Research Question
In what ways is the privatization of higher education damaging students?
Theoretical Frame
To start my paper, I will introduce the main topic, describing privatization stating my argument, that privatization of higher education is harming student and post-students in many ways, To begin my argument, I will rely on Meister’s article, as stated above. I want to explain how exactly the privatization of higher education is affecting tuition, as well as students.
I intend to then dive into how the raised tuition and need for student loans and the accompanying student debt is affecting students. I will discuss Walsemann, Gee, and Gentile’s article, "Sick Of Our Loans: Student Borrowing And The Mental Health Of Young Adults In The United States." This article details an analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (1997) in which they find evidence showing an association between student loans and poorer psychological functioning. This study brings up an important topic that needs to be discussed further in my paper: inequality. The study shows that parental wealth can moderate the association between student loans and poorer psychological functioning,
Along with the previously mentioned article, I plan on using Bennet, McCarthy, and Carter’s article, “The Impact of Financial Stress on Academic Performance in College Economics Courses.” This article describes a study done that shows a statistically significant link between financial stress and academic performance. This study also brings up the issues of inequality. As stated in the article,“A significantly higher proportion of the stressed students with lower scores were women, minorities, and first-generation college students, groups with below average rates of college attendance,” (Bennet, 29). Through discussing this along with the “Sick of Our Loans” article, three main negative effects of privatization are stated: student loans are affecting mental health negatively, worrying about student loans and scholarly financial struggles can negatively affect grades, and privatization is causing even more inequality amongst its students.
Dana Becker’s TIME article, "Does "Stress" Hide Deeper Social Problems?" discusses modern stress and its implications. She shows the transfer of stress from an institutional one, to a private one. Now, stress is “our” fault, rather than a larger societal problem that may be in place. Becker speaks of addressing these societal problems, rather than each taking them on as personal responsibilities. I am not sure yet whether Becker’s article will be best introduced along with the Meister article, in order to explain the progression of the paper, or closer to the end, to add a nice last input on the subject, and a good connection to a closing argument.
Hara Estroff Marano’s article, “Crisis U” is all about the general state of mental health amongst college students. This article may or may not find its way into my paper. If I end up using this article, it will be to show an example of how bad the problem of mental health in higher education is already, in order to strengthen the argument that some sort of societal change needs to happen.
Research Plan
One of my main concerns so far is that a lot of my research is bringing up inequality. Most of my research is saying that the main effect of privatization that has the most wide-spreading effects is the fact that it raises tuition, causing the need for student loans. This effect mostly affects low income students from low income families. I do not have much information on how privatization influence affluent students or even middle class students. Along with this, I need to find more ways that privatization directly affects students. A lot of what I have so far shows correlations, or links, but no conclusive evidence. This will involve more research on privatization itself, and its effects on higher education. I need to understand the full spread of how privatization is affecting higher education before I can understand its effects on the students
Working Bibliography
Becker, Dana. "Does "Stress" Hide Deeper Social Problems?" Time. Time Inc., 13 Mar. 2013.
Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
Bennett, Doris, Cynthia McCarty, and Shawn Carter. "The Impact of Financial Stress on
Academic Performance in College Economics Courses.”Academy of Educational
Leadership Journal 19.3 (2015): 25-30. ProQuest. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
Estroff Marano, Hara. "Crisis U." Psychology Today 48.5 (2015): 61-71 11p. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
Meister, Bob. "Debt and Taxes: Can the Financial Industry Save Public Universities?"
Representations. 1st ed. Vol. 116. N.p.: U of California, 2011. 128-55. The Humanities
and the Crisis of The Public University.JSTORE. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
"Student Loan Statistics." - ACA International. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Walsemann, Katrina M., Gilbert C. Gee, and Danielle Gentile. "Sick Of Our Loans: Student
Borrowing And The Mental Health Of Young Adults In The United States." Social Science & Medicine 124.(2015): 85-93. ScienceDirect. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
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