With what’s been called a crumbling economy in America, students and professors at the NIU College of Business remain hopeful for the future.

“I have hope for the future, but I know tough times are coming,” said Erika Rodriguez, a senior operations management and information systems major.

Some students have no worries because they already have job opportunities prepared for them.

“Right now that doesn’t worry me too much because I already have a position lined up, but it’s definitely something that I think can be hard for other people,” said Leslie Ortega, a senior marketing major.

Some NIU professors, however, do not believe the economy is as bad as the media makes it out to be.

“Are we in crisis? I think that remains to be seen,” said Ted Moorman, assistant professor of finance. “It’s hard to believe that the entire economy is affected by this, but credit markets will be tightened and businesses will have a more difficult time getting money, which means expanding for those businesses will be more difficult.”

With the media throwing around words like “collapse” and “crumbling,” finance professor Gerald Jensen said figures are nowhere near those of the Great Depression.

“We aren’t even near the situation where you can talk about a depression,” Jensen said. “A lot of this has been psychological with a great uncertainty in the air and people are delaying their decisions because of that uncertainty, and until a decision has been made to solve the economic problem then there will be no expansion or progress.”

On Monday, people saw the largest drop of stock market points in its history. However, the drop only amounted to 7 percent of the Dow Jones average and compares to neither the 20 plus percent drops in the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987.

These stock market woes affect companies more than everyday Americans, who should be more concerned with the credit market, said NIU finance professor Lei Zhou.

“The big concern is more on the fixed income market or the credit market, which has a direct impact on everybody,” Zhou said. “For the stock market, it takes a long time to affect people’s day-to-day lives.”

Zhou explained the credit market determines whether people could get loans for houses, cars, school or their businesses.

Nevertheless, the downturn in the economy will increase competition for jobs – a competition that some students are not worried about.

“It’s scary, but you just got to go into an industry that still has demand,” said Steve Milazzo, a senior business administration major. “I still see opportunities; it’s just more competitive now.”

Others have a different look on the situation.

“I hope the economy fails because it will be a nice challenge for the rest of us,” said Aaron Haverty, a senior operations management and information systems major.