Hits and Misses
United Mine Workers of America International UMWA President Cecil Roberts speaks at Tuesday’s Robena mine disaster memorial, with UMWA secretary-treasurer Brian Sanson on the right.
Jon Andreassi/ Observer-Reporter
Fabry
Students who fail to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form could be missing out on college tuition aid.
Robbin Fisher could have ended up like many homeless or kinless individuals and unceremoniously laid to rest in a pauper’s grave. The 61-year-old U.S. Army veteran was hit by a vehicle while crossing Route 51 in Jefferson Hills last month and died in a nearby hospital shortly after. But rather than letting his final farewell be carried out in anonymity, John Fabry, director and owner of the Goldsboro-Fabry Funeral Home in the Fayette County community of Fairchance, provided a burial service for Fisher at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil Township. Fabry’s own father suffered debilitating injuries in World War II, so he tries to help veterans receive dignified send-offs when they are without family, or those families lack the resources for a service and a burial. Fabry explained, “I feel you have to try to do something to help people, and I believe veterans are a good cause. If you help people on one end, God helps you on the other end.”
Sixty years ago on Tuesday, the region and the country as a whole were horrified by an explosion at the Robena Mine in Greene County that killed 37 miners. The explosion was caused by an accumulation of coal dust and methane. Its youngest victim was just 18 years-old, a student at Penn State who was studying to be a mining engineer. At a ceremony marking the solemn occasion this week, it was noted by Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America International, that it took seven years after the accident for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act to become law. Now, more than 12 years have gone by since the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that killed 29 miners, and no laws have been changed. He believes more needs to be done. Lawmakers need to listen to what Roberts and other miners have to say.
It’s the lot of people who are middle-aged or older to wish they could be young again, but few people who attended college back in the days when it was much more affordable would envy the lot of students today. A recent report by the trade publication My eLearning World found that enrollment in colleges and universities across the United States has fallen by a little more than 2% over the last 10 years, while the revenue collected by institutions of higher learning has actually increased by 15%. Demographic shifts have probably accounted for some of the enrollment decline, but certainly ever-escalating tuition costs have played a decisive role. Inflation has made life pretty tough for consumers over the last year or so, but tuition costs have far outstripped inflation for quite a long time. To put it plainly, more needs to be done to bring down the cost of attending a college or university; otherwise, those institutions will only be accessible to the most well-heeled students.