by Mandi De Jongh–As gas prices increase, students at Morningside University are being adversely impacted.
Students who commute from home are paying a lot more for gas than what they were originally planning. Not only does it affect students who commute, it also affects those living on campus. Students travel to sporting events off campus, run the weekly groceries, and visit home.
Madison Craighead is in her second year at Morningside. She lived in the dorms her first year. After figuring out the dorms were not best for her, she decided that living at home would be best for her. Madison and her family live about 15 minutes from campus.
“I am very lucky my class schedule is the way it is. Every day my classes are back-to-back right away in the morning. I go to class, then I go back home. However, basketball is starting up and I am student coach. I will have to make an extra trip back to campus for practice and games later in the day,” Craighead said.
Ellie Woelber is also a student at Morningside who decided to commute from home this school year. However, her drive is farther than Madison’s. Woelber lives with her family in Boyden, Iowa, which is just over an hour away from the school.
As of October 5, the national average gas price is $3.768 per gallon. Despite the high gas prices, Woelber does not regret deciding to live at home.
“Yeah, the gas prices may be high and affecting my bank account, but I am still happy with my decision,” Woelber said. “My overall well-being is so much better being at home. I do not regret my decision. I knew gas was going to be a big expense going into the school year, but I did not think it was going to be this much of an expense.”
On the other hand, Alex Godfredsen is a student at Morningside who lives on campus. Alex is from Rock Valley, Iowa, an hour north of Sioux City. He is part of the baseball team. Since baseball takes up a lot of time and he is busy with classes, he does not have a job during the school year.
Morningside University does not have a baseball field on campus, so he must travel to practice every day. The baseball complex is about ten minutes from campus, so he is driving an average of twenty minutes every day just for baseball. Although it does not seem that far, it does add up. The twenty minutes also does not include running errands and other things he has to travel to.
Godfredsen also loves spending time with his family. One of the reasons he picked Morningside was the distance it was from home. He enjoys going home to see his family throughout the semester.
Along with Ellie and Madison, the increased gas prices have affected Alex greatly.
“From running my weekly errands to going to baseball to go back home, I go through a lot of gas. Every time I fill up my tank it is about $60. It makes me not want to go home as much,” Godfredsen said. “I also have cut back on doing fun things. For example, my friends and I enjoyed going to Sioux Falls or Omaha for fun, and we do not do that as much because of the high gas prices.”
However, Godfredsen is happy he has only an hour drive to go back home. There are some students who are hours away or even overseas.
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