Frederick Winter: Forgive student debt? There's a better way

Study hard in high school. That and $320,000 (not including living expenses), and four years later you can graduate with a major in gender and sexuality studies from prestigious Ivy League Brown University.

As a retired business school professor and dean who spent over 40 years in academics, even I find today’s college costs and associated student debt breathtaking. But don’t worry, the Biden administration is considering forgiving student debt. Hard-working Americans deserve better. Remember the guy who said to Elizabeth Warren: “So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and then those of us who did the right thing (for our kids) get screwed?”

But my blood boils most when I think of Becky, an undergraduate I mentored during my final two years at Pitt. Becky was an excellent student with a 3.8 grade point average in accounting; while impressive, Becky was bested during job interviews by other accounting majors with even higher averages and participation in student academic clubs and organizations.

In reviewing her record, I learned that Becky had averaged 30 hours of work per week outside of class in two jobs, enrolled in 18 credits per semester, and graduated off-cycle a semester early! I also found out that Becky, in a family with a single mom and a sister, grew up 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh and worked summers at the local Dairy Queen. It was a joy to help Becky with her resume and interviewing technique, positioning her as having a great work ethic, and the happy ending was that she got great opportunities post-graduation. A DuckDuckGo search (I don’t use Google) revealed that Becky apparently married and is now working in one of Pittsburgh’s most important companies.

If Becky graduated from Pitt with student loans, I have no doubt they were fully repaid a few years later. It was my honor to teach many accomplished students at Pitt from working families, who juggled campus jobs to graduate with marketable skills and minimal debt. I was proud to serve at Pitt, where students exhibited self-reliance and grit. I am guessing that Becky and most of my former students would not be excited to devote taxes to fund gender studies at Brown, or have their kids and grandkids deal with the associated national debt generations later.

There is a better solution to the federal government throwing free money at those with student debt. Universities are in loco parentis to their students. Why not have universities put “skin in the game” by co-signing student loans? Brown’s endowment is almost $5 billion — my guess that this is almost $5 billion more than Becky’s 401(k).

There is another side benefit. Goodwill between university and students would later lead to donations from grateful alumni.

Frederick Winter is dean emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business, now retired in Nellysford, Va.