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♪ >> This is "NJ Biz Beat" With Raven Santana.

Raven: Hello, I am Raven Santana.

Thanks for joining me on "NJ Biz Beat."

More than 80 institutions, 400,000 students, New Jersey's colleges and universities are critical to our states economic growth and workforce develop and.

According to the New Jersey Association of State colleges and universities, to contribute $6.1 billion in economic activity.

Higher education is costly, both for the student and administration running the school.

At NJCU, those costs have ballooned into a financial crisis, forcing the state to appoint a monitor to help turn the school around.

I spoke with interim President about what is being done to solve this crisis and why he took the job.

>> Andres, you are first generation Cuban-American.

You are the youngest known -- >> That is what I am told.

[LAUGHTER] >> President to lead a college in New Jersey.

Tell me about how you got here.

It is impressive.

And, what made you want to step into this role?

>> First generation Cuban-American with equally proud of being a Hamilton County native.

Born and raised in Union City, New Jersey.

A vibrant community that exponentially marked by the vibrancy of this community and the rich diversity in that community.

I -- if you have the privilege to say they come from a community that diverse.

I always saw that as a privilege.

I have been afforded opportunities in life where I get to enter places and spaces that were not meant for people like me and did not contemplate people like me entering them.

I have always felt like I had an obligation, a responsibility to bring my community.

Raven: We know NJCU has partnerships, including the Latino action network.

Can you talk about that partnership and any others that you feel have been critical to the growth and success of students here?

>> I think when there is a Latino action network and foundation, some joint programming we are hosting on October 12, in part of our Hispanic heritage facility highlighting and training our students to be facilitators and leaders in restorative justice.

Two of our partnerships are with -- and driving this engine of accountability and recognizing there is a need, not just in the health care professions but also in diversifying those ranks.

New Jersey city University is the oldest minority serving, Hispanic serving public of higher institution learning in the state.

Nearly half of my students identify as Hispanic or LatinX.

This is a majority minority campus.

Equally important is the most socioeconomically diverse student population of any university, public university in the state.

That at its root defines the partnership we seek.

Raven: Talk about the compliments since taking on this role that you are proud of or want to know who will be learning more about NJCU.

>> There has been a lot of talk about the financial situation at the University.

One of the most important things that was tackled in particular proud of is addressing the depths of hope in our community and campus.

The feeling you are tethered to something bigger, the stories of the lives that crisscross our campus matter and we have a solemn obligation and privilege to elevate them.

Once you tackle that, once we tackled that, everything else falls into place.

People desperately want to participate, to lead.

To have their voice amplified.

To be listened to.

To be heard and seen.

That is how you move an institution forward.

That is how we take a $23 million deficit in January and reduce it down to below $5 million seven and a half months later.

Raven: For anyone watching who, at all -- I think this is important to mention -- anyone watching who at all is concerned about any of the financial challenges.

You are saying -- what do you say to them?

>> There is more work to do.

Look at these seven and a half months.

Look at the investment from the state of New Jersey.

$10 million in stabilization funding for this institution.

A partnership, a strategic partnership with a monitor who has been incredibly collaborative in our partnership .

A focus on strengthening and institutional mission, that this university and its mission has a role to play in the state of New Jersey.

And that there is faculty and staff and administrators and students and community leaders who do not have the privilege to sit across from you today who do the hard work day in and day out.

I get to be there stand in.

Raven: If there is one thing in your short-term plan that you want to achieve in the next five years, what is that/ >> To me, it is anchoring the community around this institution.

It is almost flipping that script.

A lot of that is talking about as a public anchor institution, what do you do for the community?

I want the community to think affirmatively, what do you need from this institution so we are in a provider mindset.

Raven: Thank you for this.

Our community colleges are vital to training the next generation of skilled workers in our states, from partnerships to apprenticeships, they offer opportunities outside of the normal path to a degree.

We as it'd Hudson County community college in Jersey City where they partnered with the local business to provide students with salary jobs while they train and learn.

I spoke to the college's president, Dr. Christopher Reber, about the school's mission.

A college is a college, whether it is two years or four years.

But the key is, it sets you up for success.

You are doing just that here.

>> absolutely.

We are the gateway to the American dream for the students we serve.

We have an open access mission.

Students select us, we do not select them.

We meet every student where they are and partner with them to help them reach their goals and dreams.

When they succeed, it is transformational because we are serving large numbers of students who are the first in their families to attend higher education.

We serve a lot of students that do not speaking was.

We serve students who are taking foundational coursework in order to get to the level of their peers and graduate.

We are serving students that come from really challenged financial backgrounds and are working full-time while attending full-time.

Our students are inspirational and our college is about our students.

Raven: What is the biggest barrier for students here?

>> One of the biggest is financial.

Our students have been surveyed, two thirds to three quarters of students report last year they have suffered from food insecurity, housing insecurity and homelessness.

We have recognized that as an open access community college, our mission has to be about helping students meet these holistic life needs.

It is not just about the academic peace.

It is about helping them through a culture of care.

Raven: I heard a story that you actually help students who had flat tires or something wrong with their car to make sure that they are able to continue their education.

Is that true?

>> 100%.

We have developed the Hudson helps resource Center.

It is a companion of services, students can get help to fill out snap funding applications.

When you get a flat tire or their literacy is turned off, we pay for it.

We pay for it.

Raven: what I love most is that, you also offer a variety of training programs and partnerships including one that I like that is different is with the New Jersey reentry.

>> We are doing two things in this area.

One, we are offering academic degree credit and credentials in the Hudson correctional facility.

We are serving incarcerated individuals.

They are able to take any number of courses, as well as financial literacy and other programs vita through partnerships and actually can initiate a degree either in jail or when they get out.

All of these programs are offered virtually, but with on the ground coaching.

We have someone there working with every inmate.

Raven: Game changer.

>> Game changer.

We are working with the governors reentry training and employment center sponsored by the New Jersey Ranch corporation in Carner to offer a whole range of short term credentials that can lead quickly to jobs which becomes preeminent for a reentry citizen.

And also put them on a pathway to continue on to earn an associate degree.

Raven: You have a another program and you pay students, right?

Can you talk about that?

Financial is a big part of this.

>> Our centerpiece example that is now growing is a partnership we developed a few years ago with Eastern millwork, which is a Jersey City based, sophisticated mill working sign and manufacturing facility.

They have done would work for the Kennedy Center and for major facilities throughout the nation.

They were having difficulty recruiting a workforce.

Raven: There has been a shortage.

[LAUGHTER] >> They need employees who have two different skill sets that are often hard to find in one person.

They need a manufacturing -- they need manufacturing skills, facility with production.

They need a creative element because they are doing design work.

It could not find the employees they needed through traditional programs.

It came to us.

We designed specific will working program as part of our associated degree in manufacturing.

We recruit students for this program and they select each year several apprentices who become their employees on day one earning a salary, earning benefits and taking our courses.

They are working part-time, taking courses part-time.

In three years, they graduate an associate degree and are on a pathway to earn a bachelors.

It is all paid for.

Raven: Thank you for joining me.

>> Thank you.

It is not lost on us we are literally on this campus the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, which is a metaphor for not only our mission but the mission of community colleges.

It is an honor to be part of this work.

Thank you for speaking with me today.

Raven: we can't talk about higher education without addressing the elephant in the room, the student debt crisis.

Federal student loan payments resume this week for the first time in three years.

The Biden administration is working on solutions, including a plan announced this week to cancel $9 billion in student debt.

For those who will not see that relief, there are other affordable payment options available.

I spoke with Spencer Dixon of the student debt crisis center about those options.

It is an uncertain time for millions of borrowers who will now need to resume their loan repayments.

Can we talk about what type of consequences many of them will now be looking at?

>> There are over 40 million Americans that have collectively over $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.

You are right.

October is the resumption of edible student loan payments.

Borrowers have a lot to think about.

They have a lot of options.

They should first contact their servicer to know their due date.

Not every borrower's due date is at the beginning of the month.

They should know when that is and the amount it is and be prepared to make that payment.

There are many options that borrowers should be aware of, most notably the save repayment program that the Biden administration launched a couple months ago that offers the lowest monthly payments ever on federal student loans.

For example, a single borrower working full time at $15 an hour would have a zero dollar payment under this program.

It is one that borrowers should go online to look at.

There is a lot of benefits to looking at your options and enrolling in this new income driven repayment plan.

Raven: It is interesting, because I think for a couple of years now, students have broken -- been creating a budget under the expectation that they are not going to have these student loan payments, to be fair.

After a three year pause, is that causing financial fallout?

>> We will see.

The student debt crisis center has a survey out in the field right now.

There are indications that borrowers are very concerned about the role that student loan payments will have on their personal budgets and the role that the overall state of the economy, while improving, is still difficult for a lot of borrowers.

North of 90% of those who responded to our survey are concerned of the role inflation is going to have in their ability to afford their monthly payment.

It is certainly a time where borrowers are looking back at their personal finances, sitting down at the kitchen table and figuring out how to make room in their finances for these payments.

There is certainly going to be an impact on the overall economy.

The Fed is even considering the impact that these new student loan payments coming back is going to have.

Again, borrowers are best to benefit I looking into their options in ways to lower their monthly payment.

Many borrowers can have a payment as low as zero dollars a month.

Raven: It is important to note that the student loan debt a person carries can affect more than just continuing their education.

And when we think about generational wealth, when we think about trying to buy a house, overall this impacts way more.

Can we talk about those consequences?

>> There are relief programs on a monthly basis, but until now and especially because of the frankly radical position of the Supreme Court in striking down what was widely seen as a legal move by the Biden administration to provide more relief to borrowers, those long-term implications are real.

There is a study after study and story after story of borrowers who are not able to put a down payment on a home to build that wealth as you indicated.

These are really, really impacts on borrowers and our economy as a whole.

When it comes to that broader, longer-term relief, student debt crisis center and many in the advocacy community are still putting pressure on the Biden administration who have started the process of looking at a Plan B on broader student debt cancellation.

That is something we are going to continue to watch and something borrowers should have hope for and should still be following, because there are longer-term, broader, bolder leaf programs that the administration is still pursuing.

Raven: You mentioned there is a Plan B they are looking at.

Ultimately, what is something you would like to see happen when it comes to student debt?

>> We would like to see the administration stick as much to its original proposal which we frankly view as a floor.

The $10,000 forgiveness per borrower with those under incomes of $125,000 and $20,000 in forgiveness for those on Pell Grant's, it is important to remember that the Supreme Court decision in June was a narrow one and one that was focused not on the substance of the plan, but on the authority the president had.

There was really nothing from a legal standpoint -- from our standpoint -- preventing the administration from putting forward a very similar proposal that they put forward before, but under a different legal framework.

We are continuing to push the administration and advocate for as much, as brought relief as possible.

Raven: For anyone watching who is now dealing with repaying student loans, the best place you can go to is student aid of.

Spencer Dixon, thanks for joining me.

>> Thanks for having me.

Raven: Before you take on those costly loans, many families spend years saving for a college education.

Financial planning for college can be difficult, especially when searching for financial aid , scholarships and loans.

I sat down with Mike from red Oak college planning to learn how he guides his clients to their educational goals.

>> Mike, we know college is pricey and it ain't getting cheaper.

Families are left with sometimes enormous loan debt.

You are doing your part to help families develop a plan so they feel financially secure and prepared.

>> We work with three types of families in our practice and most financial planners that are focused on college financial planning is a big part of their practice.

What we find is, there are some families that can navigate the process and get a lot of the college expenses paid for with need-based aid.

When I look at our practice, that is probably about 20% of our practice.

The rest of the folks are folks and what we call the middle, they are making a decent enough income as a family but the colleges are looking at them and looking at them as almost full payers.

The key thing there is, families really need to know where they are when they are about to apply for college or pre-apply for college.

Then, they can figure out a plan.

Whether it makes sense to apply to schools that are need-based schools.

If they have no need, they are going to be full payers.

They need to know where they are and maybe how they can take advantage in terms of need-based aid.

Raven: How many families in total have you helped so far?

For people watching, how much money are you saving these families?

>> In 2011, it is 2023 right now.

We are north of about 111 families we have worked with.

In some cases, multiple children with those families.

Raven: Talk about how much money you are saving for these families and how you are maximizing financially for students.

>> When we first had that initial meeting or consult with a family, we try to figure out where they are.

Have they saved?

Do they have enough savings?

If they have not saved, OK, maybe there is a plan for them, and opportunity to leverage other opportunities.

We figure out where they stand.

What is their expected family contribution for year one?

We determine a plan.

His student a good student -- is the student a good student, a great student, can this student get into the top need-based schools the family has a financial need?

If the family does not have a financial need and are looked upon by the college as a full payer, we will look at alternate tracks such as -- maybe we steer that student to a merit-based financial award, which in that case, the student will be able to obtain merit-based financial aid based on their admission application and their whole resume.

It is regardless of the family's abilities to pay.

In some cases on the merit side, we have had some families get sometimes $50,000 worth of merit aid each year.

There is also another part of the process that we do which is at the end of the senior year of the student, prior to May 1 where we in some cases can get colleges to compete against each other using a process called appeals.

Raven: Everyone is wondering, when do you start preparing?

>> It is always best with planning and saving to give yourself more time.

We love when families can come to us early in the process.

Unfortunately, college financial savings has been something where a lot of families have kicked the can down the road.

One of the big issues I find with families that do not work with us early in the process is that they have saved, but they have saved potentially in longer-term retirement accounts and not necessarily enough for college.

That is the what I call the roadblock, where families need to get to a point down the road where they can afford the college financial expenses but have not saved enough.

All of their savings are geared towards the retirement equation.

That puts them in positions where sometimes, they have to take loans.

They do not have enough available liquid savings to pay for college.

Raven: If you have a kid who is college-bound and one to feel prepared and ready financially for college, reach out to Mike.

Thanks for joining me on Biz Beat.

>> Thank, Raven.

Raven: Before we go, here is a look at the top business headlines of this week.

Hospitals and pharmacists are struggling to stop the -- stop the Covid vaccine with the federal government no longer buying industry stripping the vaccines.

Doctors are having a hard time stocking up on the shots.

With respiratory illness season underway, many patients are experiencing delays or cancellations with pharmacies run out of the vaccine or cannot obtain any stock.

At the same time, many hospitals are restarting mask mandates including RWJ Barnabas health.

This week, the NJ DEA handed out 50 cannabis grants to help men and women from communities harmed by the war on drugs start and expand their cannabis businesses.

The DA awarded $12 million to -- $250 million for each grant.

The program was originally supposed to hand out grants 24 businesses, but Amanda was so strong they decided to support double the amount of businesses.

The EDA announced a second phase of the program with additional funding.

Private employers added 89,000 jobs in September according to the latest national employment report from New Jersey-based EDP.

This marks slowest pace of growth since January 20 21 according to ADP.

Analysts say we have seen a city decline in wages over the past 12 months.

Manufacturing, transportation and professional services saw the largest drops in employment in September.

An appeals court tosses a 223 million dollars verdict against Johnson & Johnson.

A jury awarded to four plaintiffs that claimed they developed cancer after being exposed to asbestos in J&J's talc products like baby powder.

The Superior Court of New Jersey's Appellate Division decided that another lower court judge should not have allowed jurors to hear improper scientific testimony linking J&J's product to the plaintiffs cancers.

The rulings said the experts did not explain facts or methods used support their opinions.

Johnson & Johnson contends there is no us pestis in its talc products and the company marketed them properly for more than 100 years.

That does it for us this week.

Remember to subscribe to our NJ Spotlight News, YouTube channel to get alerted when we post episodes and clips.

Next week, we explore the expansion of New Jersey's marijuana market from the jobs available in the market to the rise of immunization.

Thanks for watching and we will see you next weekend.

>> Support for "NJ Biz Beat" With Raven Santana provided by NJ M.V.P., a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry focused on productivity, performance and strategic development.

More on NJ M.V.P..org.

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