Taking out student loans may be more difficult next semester due to the recent financial crisis that crippled Wall Street and plagued America’s banks.

“You’re going to have trouble getting a loan for anything,” said Jonathan Bradford, a student worker in Lee’s Office of Financial Aid. “Fewer lenders are lending.”

Many Lee students depend on financial aid, and specifically student loans, to study at Lee every year.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 89 percent of Lee undergraduate students received financial aid during the 2006-2007 academic year, the latest figures available.

Of the financial aid received by those students, 42 percent came from student loans. Every Lee student received an average of $4,143 in student loans that school year.

“Students don’t have as many options [now],” Bradford said, noting that several well-known lenders have reduced the amount of aid they provide since the onslaught of the economic crisis this month.

The College Loan Corps has stopped providing the Stafford Loan, Bradford said.

That could be just part of the bad news considering that Lee students collectively borrow approximately $15 million in student loans every school year according to 2007 statistics from the NCES.

Last week a $700 billion economic bailout was signed into law by President George W. Bush less than two hours after the House of Representatives approved it. While the original version was rejected by the House, the skeleton of the plan remains the same.

The turbulent state of the economy isn’t actually bad news to students, however, in the opinion of Assistant Professor of Business Alan Burns.

“If [the economy] was going to be tightened up, the bailout should loosen it up,” Burns said. ”It should cause student loans to be more available.”

It will likely take several months for the effects to fully take place, he said.

The biggest damage affecting college students could come in the form of increasing interest rates according to CNN, which cites college students as the most heavily indebted population.

Most students don’t have any appreciable income while taking out student loans in hope of landing a job that can help to pay back the debt later.

Unemployment rates have continued to skyrocket, however, as the bailouts rumble through the halls of Congress.

The financial rescue plan includes detailed provisions in order to jump start Wall Street and the American economy, however. The highlights include:

Handling the credit crisis: The plan allows financial institutions in trouble to sell their assets to the government, including mortgages that the institution can no longer afford.

Safeguarding taxpayers: While the bailout comes at the expense of $700 billion in taxpayer dollars, a portion of the bill states that the president must propose a bill that would require each financial institution to repay any net loss after five years, essentially reimbursing taxpayers for what they might lose through the plan.

Tax breaks: The bill includes three main tax breaks. The first, a clause that increases the amount of renewable energy tax breaks for individuals and businesses. Secondly, the law is one that allows individuals to deduct state and local sales tax on their federal returns with the research and development credit for businesses. Lastly, a tax break that tacks on an additional year that Americans won’t have to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. Without this clause Americans would have to pay on the so-called “income tax for the wealthy” program.

Despite the shape of the economy, Bradford, a pastoral ministry major, said he doesn’t have anymore worries about student loans.

“I’m a senior,” he admitted.

This story was co-written by Harrison Keely.