It’s that time of the semester again. The time when ASMSU’s loan service closes up shop, leaving penniless students, well - penniless.
But that may be the smallest problem for our undergraduate student government’s bank service. The program’s loan clerk admits the service is not used enough, and worse, about 25 to 30 percent of users never pay back their $100 loans.
That’s some $6,000-$7,000 that won’t be repaid from the 245 loans students received from ASMSU this semester. Wave goodbye to your student tax dollars at work.
The loan service is a worthwhile program ASMSU should be watching over more carefully and spreading the word on campus - we wish we could say the same thing for all the services the student government provides.
Students often struggle to scrape together money for books or rent or to pay those unexpected bills that always seem to come up at the worst time. But the loan service is only run during the first six weeks of the semester.
If given the proper resources, ASMSU’s loan program could help students year-round.
It’s important the security of this service is ensured. But if officials at ASMSU don’t promote the program to help the students that need it most, they’re not only wasting money on bad loans, they’re wasting their time in public service.
