When the average Eastern student finishes his undergraduate career, he crosses the commencement stage with a degree in one hand and a $14,950 debt in the other.

Rising tuition and student fees is a national problem that Congress is attempting to relieve.

To help in the struggle to repay those student loans, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the College Student Relief Act of 2007 to cut subsidized student loans in half during the next five years. The bill is waiting to be acted on in the Senate.

Co-sponsor of the bill, U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Champaign, estimates the cut will save 5.5 million students $4,000 in interest.

“Students should have the freedom to attend college with undue financial burden,” Johnson said. “This really opens up a lot of opportunities for people that might otherwise fall through the cracks.”

The bill passed by the House would reduce interest rates for undergraduate subsidized loans after July 1 from 6.89 to 6.12 percent and would continue to decrease every year until 2011 when it reaches 3.4 percent.

Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs, said lower interest rates would assist students with college costs, but they need more help.

“I certainly would like to see that rate lower; that would help a lot of people,” he said. “But just reducing the interest rate is not totally reducing the problem.”

Increasing college expenses is a national problem, Nadler said, for both students and institutions.

“The funding sources, quite frankly, are not keeping with the cost of running a college and university,” Nadler said, referring to increasing costs of utilities, heath care and employee salaries. “It’s costing the university significantly more to keep the lights on.”

With little increased funding from the state, expenses are being passed on to the students who, in turn, are taking out loans to pay their way.

According to the financial aid programs report, 80 percent of Eastern students received financial aid of some kind in 2006.

Also in 2006, 12.1 percent more students received loans than in 2005, totaling $43.3 million.

Joan Zieren, director of financial aid, said more than 9,000 federal loans were taken out by students in 2006, with some students receiving more than one loan.

“I’m all for them cutting the interest rates for loans,” Zieren said. But she, too, would like to see more help for students than interest rate cuts.

“Ideally, we would all like to see grant money increase,” she said. “I would favor any kind of legislation that would increase the amount of the Pell Grant.”

In fiscal year 2006, 2,354 students received Pell Grants of varying amounts based on estimated family contribution. The maximum award is $4,050 and the minimum is $400.

President Lou Hencken and Nadler said students need more than lower interest rates to help pay for their college educations.

“It’ll (lower interest rates) make a difference,” Hencken said. “It won’t make a big difference.”

“I think it would be great if interest rates were lowered on the student loans, but that’s really a byproduct of the greater issue,” Nadler said. “I’d much rather see a greater investment in grants, scholarships and work study.”