| Married
students at USU struggle to balance time, money
By Blaze Bullock
April 29, 2009 | Matthew Moriarty
is married, has two children, works a minimum of 40
hours a week and is a full-time student at USU.
Moriarty said he thinks being married
makes being a college student really difficult mainly
because he has to put more time in at work.
"If I wasn't married I wouldn't
have to work as much," he said. "But that
just comes with the territory. Financially it makes
it a whole lot harder."
Marriage is expensive and requires
a lot more time than being single does Moriarty said.
He went on to say that whenever he isn't at work or
school he's watching his kids.
Despite the many demands for married
students, marriage does make college life a little easier,
Moriarty said. If he needs to do something but he doesn't
have time to do it himself, he said that his wife can
usually do it for him.
Moriarty attributes a lot of his
ability to attend college while being married to the
government. "I couldn't have done it without the government.
Well I guess I could've but it would've been a lot harder."
Moriarty said.
USU also does a lot to help married
students, said Moriarty. The university offers marriage
counseling at very low prices, and daycare for students'
children is offered which is a great help.
Moriarty said he thinks the school
helps married students so they'll continue to go to
that school once they're married.
ASUSU's department director Tiffany
Evans said that about 50 percent of students at USU
are married by the time of their graduation.
Evans said that there are many different
situations for married students which makes it harder
for the school to help them. In some situations both
of the people in the marriage are students, sometimes
only one of them is, and often one person has already
graduated from college and is working to put their spouse
through college. "It's so fascinating that even within
that makeup you have other sub-categories," Evans said.
The University Fee board has implemented
student spouse cards for couples with only one person
attending the school. A spouse card can be purchased
by students so their spouse can have access to the school's
resources, said Evans.
The student spouse card costs $40.
Of that money, $8 goes to ASUSU activity fees, $14.25
for athletic fees, $8.75 for campus recreation, $3.50
for music and theater department and $5.50 goes to the
Nelson Fieldhouse Fitness Center, said Evans.
The student spouse card allows spouses
access to athletic events, ASUSU events, campus recreation,
the shuttle bus system, building use, music/theater
production discounts and the Nelson Fieldhouse Center.
The card does not allow access to computer labs or the
Student Health Center, said Evans.
Counseling is offered for married
students, Evans said. "It's free if you're a student."
Evans agreed with Moriarty about
the price of day care. "They provide discount rates
for children of students," she said.
Carson Yonker, a married student
at USU, said he believes college is much harder for
married students and especially for parents.
"Government grants are
nice and all but they don't cover all of your expenses,"
said Yonker.
Both Moriarty and Yonker said they
get grants for the government that pay for all of their
tuition but that they have to pay for their books with
their own money.
Moriarty said that Medicaid helps
him significantly. "It does help out where we don't
have insurance," he said.
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