Is anyone giving out coupons for the price of living? Everything has been hit by inflation: grocery prices, tuition prices, gas prices and rent prices to name just a few. These are all things that affect the average college student, who is handicapped by the fact that they cannot get a normal full-time day job due to school hours, which leads them to work less, odd hours with lower pay. Being a college student these days is like being set up for failure.

The average full time college student takes at least 12 hours of classes a week, pays rent for a room in a house shared with roommates and works a job to pay for their tuition, activities, groceries and rent, all at the same time. While some students are lucky enough to be able to live with their parents or get financial help from family, this is not the case for most. Some businesses in Natchitoches do not want to hire college students because of their hard schedule to work around, and because of the preconceived notion that students are lazy and unreliable.

This leaves most students working in places that rely on tips, like restaurants and bars, which means that they get paid only $2 and 13 cents. There is no guarantee on which nights you will be busy at your job, and no way of knowing which customers will tip well and which ones won’t.

It is all a guessing game, and most nights end with hoping that you made enough to cover a portion of your rent, or groceries or at least the portion of your tuition that you owe on this part of your payment plan. Finding a job that will work around your school schedule is even harder. You may get them to schedule you around your classes, but god forbid something else pops up, like a football game, or a study group outside of class. Most jobs do not have flexibility, and students learn to rely on their coworkers to help them out.

Once you finally find a job with flexible hours that pays slightly over minimum wage, you then must find a house to rent in Natchitoches. This shouldn’t be hard since there are multiple Facebook groups full of people advertising their houses for rent or sale. However, most of these groups are full of fake posts, with people using pictures of houses that they do not own to scam people out of a deposit.

When you find one posted by a real person for a reasonable price, it is rented before you can even comment on the post. The only houses that stay up are houses that do not rent to college students, or are renting at extraordinary prices, which is becoming increasingly common these days.

My freshman year in 2020, I rented a room for $283. This was a reasonable price for a working, full-time college student. I remember the average that my friends were paying at the time was around $300 to $400, depending on the area and size of the house. Now, only a few years later, the average cost per room of most houses that I see is around $500 to $750. This price is not realistic for most students.

I believe that this, along with the increase of crime in Natchitoches, has been part of the reason for the increase of Northwestern State University of Louisiana students going online. It takes them time to commute back and forth to class, they do not have to pay Natchitoches rent prices, they save money on certain fees, and they get the same education. Most of the landlords in Natchitoches are older people who own at least one house already. Most are not making repairs or upgrades to these houses, but they are quick to raise the monthly rent, especially if you have a pet.

How can people refuse to rent to college students in a college town? It makes no sense to me, and it almost seems like discrimination in a way. Most students struggle to find something in their pay range, which leaves them scrambling a few days before the semester starts to try to find somewhere to stay. I have known people that have had to stay on their friends’ couches or ask their coworkers for money because they just couldn’t pay their rent that month.

It almost feels like the town of Natchitoches is pushing college students out, even though students help their business and town thrive. The students are already making sacrifices coming to a town with no public transportation, no activities – like a Dave and Busters, trampoline park or anything besides a bar – or resources to facilitate the hardships for college students.

It is getting harder and harder as a college student to afford to stay and live in Natchitoches. The cons are starting to outweigh the pros, and some students are recognizing this reality. This is an ask for help to the city of Natchitoches from NSU students, to help students out more. They volunteer in town, spend money at businesses, and I feel as if they do not get much incentive to do any of those things.