Oxford News

OXFORD, Ind. - Two students have been suspended and are facing expulsion following an incident at Prairie Crossing Elementary School Friday.

OXFORD, Ind. - We continue to reveal the top five "Most Interesting Homes" in Greater Lafayette based on your votes in our online contest.

Oxford, Ind. - Thursday was the 26th anniversary of an explosion that forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in what was then the Soviet Union.

When David and Linda Black started their family just over two decades ago, they set their sights on a financial goal. 'Our goal was not to have them (have to) take out any student loans,' David Black said. The Oxford couple has two children -- Tyson, 23, and Rachel, 21 -- and both work in public education. David teaches health and physical education, along with coaching football, at Benton Central High School, and Linda is an aide at Prairie Crossing Elementary School. They're not millionaires, but the Blacks wanted to help support their son and daughter in college or any other post-secondary training program they chose to pursue after high school. So shortly after the children were born, David Black gathered whatever extra money they could muster at the time and put it into an aggressive mutual fund account. They added money to the account each month through automatic deposits, and Black said it was helpful to have that routine in place. 'You get used to it and you're never tempted to stop this month and use it for this or that,' he said. 'We knew eventually something was going to come out of our pockets. This was just a way to do a little bit over a long period of time.' The ongoing investments paid off, and in recent years the Blacks were able to pay for Tyson to earn two associates degrees in the computer field from Ivy Tech Community College and for Rachel's nursing program at Indiana State University, where she's still in school. Black said the investments they made early on helped supplement the family in various ways over the years; it wasn't all earmarked for college costs. And he also pushed his children to save for school on their own. 'Even though the investments did very well and took care of a substantial part of it, we still had to get other money from elsewhere because college costs grew faster than (the investments) did toward the end,' he said. Saving over the years took discipline, but Black is happy they could help their children get through college without taking out any student loans. He recalls working with one student teacher in recent years who was graduating college with $50,000 in loans. 'That's what we wanted to try to prevent,' he said. 'I wanted them to focus on school and not worry about where the money was coming from. I know a lot of kids who dropped out of college, and the biggest factor was lack of funding.' His advice to other parents wanting to save for their children's college expenses is simple: 'Start as soon as you can. Because before you know it, it will be upon you.'

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A West Lafayette native has been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford.