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Illustrations of Tamara Hillstrom's dedication to public service

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Options for Student Debt

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Monday, June 23, 2014, President Obama made an executive order to help relieve student loan debts.  This law makes it possible to get your debt forgiven in as little as 10 years.  The law, as it broadly applies, allows for loan forgiveness in 20 years, not 25 years and makes reducing payments easier for students.  The kicker though, is that if you get a job in public service.

According to Marketwatch.com, this order is called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.  It says, “borrowers may qualify for forgiveness of the remaining balance of their Direct Loans after they have made 120 qualifying payments on those student loansloans while employed full time by certain public service employers.”  In order to qualify for this act, one must work at least 30 hours a week in public service, government, or in a non-profit job.  Certain for-profit organizations that deal with public interest or elderly and child services also qualify for this act.

For many people, student debt is unmanageable when they leave school.  This program allows for people to enter an industry that actively gives back to the community to pay your debt.  This move will attempt to allow people who leave school with serious debt to have some options upon leaving school.  Rather than having to enter the workforce immediately and wherever you can so that you can pay off loans, this allows people to take lower paying jobs and still be able to pursue a debt-free future.

There are many other factors that are going into this law.  Some believe that this will help alleviate rising tuition fees, while others think this is simply a temporary solution to ignore that problem.  There are some who want to cap the amount of debt for which you can be forgiven, while others have problems with this concept.  Regardless of all of the details that need to be ironed out, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program increases the flexibility of options fro students who graduate with loans.

 

 

Fundraising and Promotion of Museums in China

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The Long Museum West Bund, on the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China is a privately funded institution that is a grand example of the development of cultural infrastructure that is becoming more prevalent throughout the country. Founded by the art collector, Wang Wei and her husband, The Long Museum West Bund in 33,000 square meters and located at a former industrial site, symbolizing the change in values throughout the country.

The movement promoting cultural infrastructure in China has taken off and the government has conceived of a 5-year plan to create a museum for every 250,000 people. This plan, which was put into effect in 2010 is ahead of schedule. The push to imagescreate cultural institutions is not without benefits. Though many public institutions have issues finding quality shows and building a collection, the private museums have taken off. according to CNN, the Tate Modern in London has almost 100 times the budget of the state-run Power Station of Art in Shanghai.

In China, the infrastructure seems to come before the demand for it. Though there is a lack of educated curators and funding for promotional programs, the audience is slowly growing. As Museums are becoming more heavily promoted, the population seems to be tailoring themselve
s for the new industry. Not only are there more education programs offered in curatorial services, but many students are finding programs internationally to improve their curatorial studies.

Though the audience for this images-1particular development in culture is still growing, there is a fear that, similar to what has happened with many projects in China, that the anticipated demand for these bastions of culture will far exceed the actual demand. In the recent past this fear has been justified in real estate, where there are entire planned cities abandoned and devoid of human life.

Since the audience for museums is growing in China, this fear has yet to be justified. Museums can now be found all over the country even in remote areas. Anywhere that features an archeological site will almost certainly have a museum built on it in order to protect the site according to Clare Jacobson who is the author of New Museums in China. Private interests often use museums as promotions to cultivate popularity for other projects.

As of 2013, there were 4,000 museums in China, which is 500 greater than their goal for 2015. The enthusiasm of private investors, seems due to a surety that the audience will grow proportionally to match the infrastructure.