With gas prices going up and the price of eggs hitting a record high, inflation is on the rise and there are no signs of it slowing down. Many students have to work to help pay for the education they are receiving and now with everything becoming so much more expensive, tuition payments are getting harder to make. Students are having to devote even more time to working and less to school; just to be able to pay the bills to stay. Several students were interviewed regarding how they feel about having to balance an increasing workload and attending Eureka College full-time.

Audrey Welch is a Junior who commutes to Eureka from Germantown Hills and works 2 off-campus jobs. She works 10-15 hours a month at the Peoria Civic Center and 20+ at Mauries Sugar Shoppe here in Eureka. “I noticed how expensive things were getting when I was thinking about all the loans I took out to live in the dorms. Once I moved out my bill dropped to a fraction of the price,” she said. On the topic of balancing school, she believes that there has to be a distinction between work days and school days and tries not to let the two overlap as much as she can. In regards to improvements, the school can make she said, “Since I moved out there’s not much the school can do for me about my financial situation. I think that there should be more scholarship opportunities to help students who are living in the dorms out more.”

Also interviewed, was Sophia Simonis a Junior residential student who works 10-15 hours off-campus at the Peoria Civic Center. She said that ” As soon as I’m back on campus and have to buy my own groceries to live on my own, I realize that it is impossible to get the necessities without spending almost $100.” Because she works at the Civic Center she does not get much say in her hours there and when there are events, she works them, saying that she struggles to balance work and school but is lucky enough to not have to pay for it entirely on her own. In terms of how the college can help she said that “Some of the classes I have to take for my degree are only offered at night. Which is taking away two nights a week for a whole semester that I could be working. If these classes were offered at alternative times, I would be able to work more”.

The consensus between the two seems to be that work has to be prioritized in the same regard as school because the cost of living makes it seem impossible to live comfortably if they don’t. The office of student life recently sent out a survey that polled students on their need for a food bank on campus to help alleviate one of the main stressors plaguing students. If you have any other ideas that might help, feel free to email the office of student life at studentservices@eureka.edu.