Running Head: The United States and the Great Depression

The United States and the Great Depression

Wendy Romero
University of Texas at El Paso

The United States and the Great Depression

Abstract
In this literature review you will be informed with various facts about the University of
Texas at El Paso and the Great Depression. The Great Depression was something that changed
the whole world completely and it was not something easy that the United States could get out
of. This depression affected children, college students, head of households, working college
students. It was a full transformation from what the United States was to what the United States
came to be after the Great Depression was done with. You will also learn differences and
similarities between the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

The United States and the Great Depression

Introduction
The Great Depression was the deepest and long lasting economic failure the country has
ever gone through. It started in 1929 and it went on until around 1939. Over the next several
years, many levels of unemployment had raised as companies laid off workers. By 1933 the
Great Depression reached its lowest point. Approximately 15 million Americans were
unemployed and several of the countrys banks had failed. The economic would not fully turn
around until 1939 when World War II helped the United States build itself up and get out of this
depression it was in. this depression was not only going on in the United States. The whole world
was affected by it and it was a really difficult time for the nation. The fact that trade industry was
not possible was one of the biggest hardships the U.S could have had. Especially since that is
how the U.S made most of its money.
The University of Texas at El Paso or UTEP opened in 1914, it has been opened for 100
years. When a college or university have been opened for so long like UTEP has, people realize
that it has gone through a lot of hard moments in history. The great depression was of one of the
toughest moments in the history of the United States as well as for world history because the
United States had a lot of business like trade with foreign countries this caused other countries to
get hit by the depression as well. This depression affected so many universities and UTEP was
one of them. Students, professors staff, and everyone you can think of were affected. You might
think that because it is a university, it does not get hit that hard, but indeed it did. In this
literature review keep in mind the following questions:
1. What was the outcome of UTEP during the Great Depression?
2. How does UTEP currently aid students and is this enough?
3. Is there any additional programs that can financially help students?

The United States and the Great Depression

4. How is the Great Recession and the Great Depression alike and different?
What was the outcome of UTEP during the Great Depression?
College of Mines or now known as UTEP opened its doors on September 28, 1914. On
this day only 21 students attended its opening day and by the end of the semester 27 students
were enrolled. The location of this school was just east of what is now Fort Bliss. Due to
difficulties and a fire in the main building, the college moved to the site it now occupies by 1918.
In 1927, the Texas College of Minds and Metallurgy merged with the El Paso Junior College.
UTEP is now 100 years old and this means that this university has been standing through many
crisis and achievements that this city, state, and country has gone through. These crisis will
include the Great Depression and World War II, as UTEP was already giving classes around this
time.
The Great Depression began in 1929 and by this time UTEP was on its feet with its door
opened. El Paso has never had the depression that the rest of the United States has had
because of Juarez (Phillips, 1975). With this being said, you can assume that the Great
Depression did not affect the city as much as the United States was, our next door neighbor was
one of the many reasons why El Paso residents were not hit as hard as other major cities were.
Residents were able to cross the bridge and buy food or any other necessity they had over at
Juarez, Mexico. The university in general kept its doors opened and had trouble meeting payroll
when it was due. The dean at the time had to ask for several of loans to be able to pay its
administration. At one point when the all the banks had closed and tuition was due UTEP had to
wave all the tuitions and let the students attend classes. Even though this depression was going
on it did not stop UTEP from celebrating any achievements or any reunions. In 1934 the school
had reached its first milestone, celebrating its 20-year reunion with a banquet honoring Dean

The United States and the Great Depression

Cap Kidd. This showed how much the school had pride in itself and was not going to let
anything in the way of having success.
As students and as head of a house hold maintaining a job during this era was probably
one of the toughest things anybody could do. Due to the fact that minimum wage was not what it
is now and jobs are not as promising as they are now. Many students had to drop out of school
because they had other responsibilities and they could not afford tuition at the moment. It was
known that students to save up money they would walk from wherever they lived all the way to
UTEP just to save up on money for gas. You might think that they are exaggerating because gas
back in that era was extremely cheap compared to now, but this was a lifestyle for many students
and faculty. What also affected the community of El Paso and in this also students, is that many
major companies only wanted to keep employees that were young and would not want to hire
anyone that had to attend school because they would not be able to work all the hours that were
necessary. Simply many older or younger employees did not have the strength enough to do
certain things that job required. I remember my dad getting laid off from the railroad because
that went strictly on seniority (Aguilar, 1975). Aguilar mentions that his dad was laid off, and
this was many of the cases of certain students and families. I remember my dad always being
laid off (Aguilar, 1975). With Aguilar saying this, its proof of how difficult it was to try and
keep a job or find one. No matter how old you were due to the depression, companies had to lay
off and were not able to hire any people. In this depression it did not matter if you had a lot more
experience than someone younger, what matter the most was how long you could be with the
company and if you could do the heavy lifting that was necessary for several companies that
were laying people off. In the case of Aguilars dad, it would not have matter how old the man

The United States and the Great Depression

was or how much smarter he was than someone younger than him. Being the parent of a family
and the house hold made it more difficult bringing bad news to their families.
How does UTEP currently aid students and is this enough?
Many students in college/universities receive financial aid or scholarships. Financial aid
is any grant, loan, or scholarship offered to help a student meet his/her college expenses. This
aid is given to students by federal and state agencies, college, foundations, and other
corporations. When a student receives financial aid there is certain rules or expectations the
student must meet to keep receiving this help. Financial aid is usually based on need. Needbased means that the students familys financial resources are not sufficient to cover their
educational costs. Many students and families worry that they have to come up with the
money to pay back what the college/university gave the student for financial aid but that is
not the case. Financial aid is not something the student has to pay back to the school or the
government. If the student asks for some kind of loan that is when the student has to pay
back the full amount, usually at lower interest rates than other types of loans. If the student is
given a full scholarship by a foundation or corporations or is on an athletic scholarship the
student does not have to pay any money back either. It is possible that the student could
receive a full scholarship but not receive financial aid.
UTEP offers financial aid and scholarships to the students that meet the requirements it
asks for. This university also offers athletic scholarships but that has to be given by the coach
that wants the student to play at UTEP. It also offers scholarships and these scholarships are
given to the student when their grades are remarkable and the student has applied for it. The
student has to meet certain requirements as well. UTEP also offers a work-study program,
which is a student is able to work on campus part-time and gets paid minimum wage if and

The United States and the Great Depression

only if the student is receiving financial aid. Most students love this idea because most jobs
will not work around your school schedule which makes it difficult for them to get good
hours without missing class. The following questions were asked to 10 people, five males
and five females for a survey:
1. Do you receive full financial aid benefits?
2. Is it enough to cover all your expenses?
3. Do you work at school?

Financial Aid
5
4
3
2
1
0
Boys
Receive

Girls
Don't Reveive

Work-Study

Not Work Study

Outside Job

The chart above is a survey that was conducted, it involved five guys and five girls. Two
out of the five guys receive financial aid, three out of five guys do not receive financial aid. One
out of the five guys is in the work-study program and two out of the five guys have a job outside
of campus. Four out of five girls receive financial aid, one out of five does not, three out of five
girls are in the work-study, and one out of five girls have a job out of campus. These results
prove that no matter whether students receive financial aid or not they make the effort to make
additional money and pay the bills they have. This was only conducted on 10 people and the
results were pretty interesting, now imagine the results someone would get if it was 100 people

The United States and the Great Depression

doing the survey. The work-study program is a great program for students that receive financial
aid and are having trouble finding a job outside the college. Although, it is okay for students to
receive financial aid and have a job off campus, but it is something that is difficult. Due to the
fact that it is tougher finding a job in this city and a job that will be able to work around your
school schedule. By this means, any school activities, classes, group assignments, so on and so
forth.
Financial aid for many students say it is not enough to fully cover all of their tuition or
certain classes are not paid for. When certain classes are not paid for, the student has to be
dropped from that class and cannot attend to it in that semester. Which is not good at all because
it holds the student back as they are trying to advance in credits. When financial aid is not fully
covering a students tuition this is when a student has to ask for a loan and it messes the student
up with future plans.
Is there any additional programs that can financially help students?
As a student in college/university it is tough for a student to pay off tuition on their own,
out of their pocket. There is certain things students can do only if they meet the requirements that
the college or association is asking. To be able to apply for a scholarship you must be a resident,
and have reasonable G.P.A. A student can also have a job but handling a full time job and full
time school is something not many students can accomplish. If a student is head of a house hold
means that they already have a job but this does not mean that they stop paying for tuition, this
actually means that the government could help them. An emergency loan is something the
university offers when your financial aid is being delayed and tuition is due in that same week.
When your financial aid or your scholarship are delayed its best to go with this option because it
means you will not be dropped from your classes. When your financial aid or your scholarship

The United States and the Great Depression

come through, they pay off that emergency loan. This only happens with an emergency loan. Not
all loans do this. This is a loan given by the financial aid office at the college/university you are
attending. Something else that the college/university gives out are grants. Grants are pretty much
like financial aid but they are given to you because of something during high school or because
of your parents job. This could be a federal grant issued by the United States government and it
is something you do not have to pay back like a loan. This is something you can also apply to
and it will also be great help to you, because sometimes a grant can fully pay for your tuition and
you will still have left over to be able to pay for school expenses like books.
Taking a loan out is something you have to really think about and really understand what
the consequences are. With many loans, you can start paying it off six months after you graduate
college. When you ask for a loan, the interest is usually really low because of the fact that it is
for a college tuition and you are asking through the schools financial aid offices. When you ask
for a loan this has to be paid back. Many students get confused because they think they are
receiving financial aid and they get confident and think it does not have to be paid back. Many
advisers do not recommend for a student to ask for a loan, the reason is because a loan has to be
paid back, mandatory and by the time the student graduates it could be that they forget about the
loan and do not have enough money saved up to be able to fully start paying it off.
How is the Great Recession and the Great Depression alike and different?
The Great Recession and the Great Depression are the same and different in various ways.
The Great Recession started in December 2007 and lasted about two years ending in June 2009.
Even though this was a difficult time for the country it was not as terrible as the Great
Depression. This recession did not harm the United States as much as the Great Depression did.
The Recession lasted two years and it was not caused by the stock breaking out, the recession

The United States and the Great Depression

was caused by an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. The outbreak of a housing bubble means that
the family wealth had dropped dramatically.
Also, this led to a collapse in business investment. Job loss meant that family income had
dropped, poverty had raised, and children as well as adults had lost health insurance. This
happened because it was a very dried up couple years and massive jobs were lost. Americans
were not on an incredibly low wage and it was not as tough as it was back in 1929. One of the
similarities these two have is that the United States had sharp cutbacks in consumer spending.
This recession ended in June 2009 and even at that time the growth was not strong enough to
have create jobs needed for the people to be at peace in their country.
The American economy entered an ordinary recession during the summer of 1929. As
unsold goods began to pile up. A similarity could be that the stock market bubble of both the
recession and the depression burst before announcing that the United States was in a recession or
depression. The Great Depression was in a time where everything seemed cheap but back in that
era in that moment it was at its highest most expensive point. Many prices to a lot of consumer
goods had been rising but were still not selling. Keep in mind that this depression was not only in
the United States it was worldwide depression. This becomes another difference between the
recession and the depression. The recession was not worldwide, as the depression was. When the
Great Depression began, the United States was the only country in the world without any kind of
unemployment insurance or social security. With this being said, in 1935, Congress passed a
Social-Security Act. Which for the first time, the United States provided Americans with
unemployment, disability, and pension for old age. This was a great act because it would mainly
help the elderly that could not work for themselves, or for the Americans that got hurt and could
not maintain their house on two feet.

The United States and the Great Depression

Conclusion
In this Literature Review you learned how UTEP was affected by the Great Depression.
How students and their families struggled to get a job or to be able to pay tuition. Also, you
learned how many students have jobs outside of the college/university they are attending. This is
occurring around the world, students are not receiving enough financial aid to get them where
they need to be so they find the need to have to work either a full or part time job. While
attending full time classes. The Great Recession did not impact the United States as much as the
Great Depression did, it also did not last as long as the depression did. The Great Recession
stayed a recession and did not go in to being something more difficult like the Great Depression.
Students can apply for several scholarships that they meet the requirements for. Also, they can
apply for a loan that will help them finish paying of the tuition if their financial aid did not fully
pay it off.

The United States and the Great Depression

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