TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1974
N.C. ESSAY
PAGE 7
Student Financial Aid Hassle (Continued) |
Sen, Sam Ervin Writes ... I
By PETER FISCHER
In the last issue of the N.C. Essay, I
stated that I had written a number of
letters concerning the school’s financial
aid policies to members of the Senate, the
House of Representatives and the
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
I recently received a response to my
communications from U.S. Sen. Sam J.
Ervin, Jr., who is presently in charge of
the Senate Committee on Government
Operations.
Ervin stated that a blanket financial
aid policy restricting high school
students on private financial aid in ac
cordance with the federal student aid
program wiiich restricts those college
students receiving federal is wrong.
As you will recaU in my last article, the
financial aid policy of the school is one
that prevents high school students
receiving private financial aid from
earning money on a regular job for self-
support in order to be fair to those
coUege students who must abide by ttie
federal restrictions concerning their
government aid. I have also questioned
the interpretation of the federal
restrictions that this school follows.
According to HEW guidelines, as I
understand them, the first year you are
here if you have federal aid restrictions
on your earnings, at the end of the year
you are to file a report lisiting Uie amount
you earned and what you u^ it for. If
the money was spent for necessities, the
amount of the next year’s grant would be
unaffected.
If you earn money during the year,
regardless of what the need might be, the
amount you earn, after the first $150, will
be deducted from your grant.
Ervin wrote: “Every scholarship and
student aid program at every college has
its own basic requirements under \rtiich
the student qualifies. Therefore, I do not
believe that a school can establish a
blanket policy with respect to its
scholarships and student aid programs.
From your correspondence, I assume
that the scholarship under which you
have received assistance is a private
scholarship probably set up by some
individual or organization interested in
furthering the education of young people
interested in the arts. Therefore, it
cannot be compared with the federal
student aid programs which are based on
the need of the individual student.”
The information from Ervin is quite
clear. The fact that he would respond to
my letter with the above statements
obviously indicates that he feels the
policy of the school is incorrect.
Upon receiving this letter, I delivered a
copy of it to Martin Sokoloff, ad
ministrative director, and briefly
discussed its contents with him. Later
that day, SCA president Susan Summers
went to Sokoloff for his reaction to the
letter. Both Susan and I were advised by
Sokoloff to write letters to various arts
colleges throughout the country so that
we might compare financial aid
programs.
The financial aid program at this
school is one that affects the future of
many students and is under the control of
the administration. If this school is to
fulfill its function as an educational in
stitution for the students, its ad
ministration should take an active part
and interest in clearing up this problem
instead of putting the burden of
responsibility on the students.
I think this letter presents enough
evidence to the administration to prove
that the entire financial aid program at
the school should be thoroughly in
vestigated. I am awaiting replies from^j:
the directors of the HEW Offices oftj
Higher Education in Atlanta and[;:;
Washington, D.C. I hope that more facts
can soon be obtained for the benefit of the
students.
Peter Fischer is a high school Senior on
financial aid. $:
. . . Administration Gives Its Side
By FRANK S. RUARK
Who should have an opportunity to go
to college? And who should pay? These
are the larger questions implied by Peter
Fischer and Susan Summers’ more
specific questions about off-campus
earnings as they relate to financial aid.
The need for admissions requirements
can be better answered by others. From
a cost standpoint, however, every
qualified applicant should have equ^
opportunity to enroll regardless of their
ability to pay. The bills have to be paid.
The debate about their i^yment l^gan
early and intensifies daily with rising
admissions and even faster rising costs.
In quick succession Congress passed
the National Defense Student Loan
(NDSL), the College Work-Study., and,
eq>eciaJly for low-income students, the
Educational Opportunity Grant
Programs (EOG). Each had its own
eligibility requirements, but all were
based upon calculated need after a
reasonable contribution from parents
and self-help (summer and term-time
earnings) from students. Schools were to
keep giving at least the same amounts of
financial aid and scholarships as they
had given upon entry into the programs.
EOG and College Work-Study Program
job funds are targeted to students in
lower family-income brackets. The
balance of their needs comes from NDSL
and school funds. Too few EOG and
Work- Study dollars leave many students
from middle-income families with only
loans and, where possible, school grants.
Congress passed the Guaranteed
Student Loan Act to encourage banks and
other lenders to make loans to college
students. The government pays the in
terest during in-school years and
guarantees the lender his money in case
of death or default.
The Nixon administration wants to put
most of its money in the new Basic
Educational Opportunity Grant Program
(BEOG). Underfunded, the program
gives grants only to college freshmen in
1973-74. In 1974-75 it will help freshmen
and sophomore. Each student is to
receive a maximum grant less a family
contribution. The family contribution is
calculated by an impersonal, off-campus
government contractor, excluding
student earnings. The trouble is that an
average family with an income of $12,000,
two parents and two children, one of
vrtiom is in college, has a calculated
contribution big enough to equal or ex
ceed the maximum. That student gets no
grant.
To offset the cost of BEOG’s, Mr. Nixon
wants to terminate the on-campus EOG
(now Supplementary Educational
Opportunity Grants) and NDSL
programs, leaving only Work- Study and
school funds to 1m awarded on campus.
His philosophy seems to be that, except
for BEOG and Work-Study awards to
students from lesfrtiian- middle-income
families, the costs of college shall be paid
by parents and students from earnings,
savings and loans. So far. Congress has
saved and continued the Supplementary
EOG and NDSL on-campus programs,
believing that a school’s financial aid
administrator is more sensitive than an
off-campus agency computer to the
needs of individual students.
De^ite the confusion and change,
certain principles are constant con
cerning financial aid which includes
federal funds;
1) Each student is entitled to a fair,
impartial need analysis;
2) Reports from commercial need
analysis companies like College
Scholarship Service are only tools to help
financial aid administrators make fair
awards;
3) The administrator must use his best
judgment. If he adjusts the calculated
parents’ contribution and a student’s
award up or down, however, he must
have firm evidence to justify his action;
4) A student should not be “over
awarded” with more financial aid than
he needs. If he is, the government claims
its money is overspent, and the school
must refund it to the government. One
school recently had to pay back $105,000.
5) Each student is expected to use his
earnings from summer and term-time
on-campus and off-campus jobs to help
pay for his education.
6) Voluminous reports in minute detail
must be sent each year to HEW. Also,
each year a team of accountants from the
office of the N.C. State Auditor
scrutinizes each penny spent or
misspent.
7) Federal funds are available only to
college students.
8) Federal regulations do not apply to
financial aid awards not including
federal funds to college students.
Neither do they apply in our unusual
school to awards to high school students.
9) Federal regulations do not apply to
scholarships of tuition reductions
awarded for talent. If a scholarship
winner needs financial aid, however, his
scholarship and tuition reduction must be
part of- not in addition to- his financial
aid.
To some, it seems unfair that a “rich
kid” can put his scholarship in his pocket
and live it up v\1iile the “poor kid” has his
counted as part of financial aid. First,
don’t be too sure the “rich kid” is really
rich. Remember the disadvantaged
middle class are the ones usually hurt.
That scholarship may be the only way his
parents can find to pay his bills.
We have argued wiUi HEW that the
reduction in financial aid due to term-
time earning is like a 100 percent tax. It
destroys initiative and self-reliance. It
keeps the student dependent upon the
government and the school. HEW replies
that since the ta^yers are putting up
$870 million for financial aid this year,
they have a right to know that students
are not getting more than they need. The
problem, then, is national, neither
created by NCSA nor peculiar to it.
At NCSA all financial aid for high
school students (and a few college
students) comes from NCSA funds.
Should they be subject to the eamings-
reduction policy? Or should they enjoy a
loophole not available to those who get
federal funds? Students with equal needs
receive equal awards. TTie school does
not award less aid to one merely because
he does not qualify for federal funds.
Since students get the same level of
support, they are subject to the same
rules. A few do not enjoy special
privileges just because federal
regulations do not apply to them.
The NCSA Foundation provides more
than $100,000 per year for student
financial aid. The money comes from
other foundations and from generous
friends who want to help our students
J succeed. If the claims of a few to have
special privileges becomes epidemic, our
friends may reduce or withdraw their
support. We bite the hand that feeds us at
our own risk.
Frank S. Ruark is the NCSA Financial
Aid Administrator.
Cataracts: A Column of Eye Openers
By SHAWN NELSON
Did you know that President Nixon’s
administration is introducing into
Congress a new military spending bill to
appropriate millions of doUars in ad
ditional funds for defense in the form of
increasing strike accuracy of the Minute
Man missile (the U.S. has 1000 of them
trained on Russia and assorted targets)
from 1900 fe*t of mark to less than 600
feet of mark! Do we really need this kind
of relative infinitesimal accuracy when
we learn that each Minute Man missile
carries a warhead with eight times the
devastating death-load of the bomb that
ended the former age of Hiroshima!
Perhaps the most undistinguished event
of this brand-spanking new year was the
Comet Kohoutek. For all you dopes who
do not know what it is, Kohoutek was the
astronomical non-event of the century (a
very large, very briUiant comet which no
one seems to have seen). If you think you
did see it, then you might have seen white
metal telephone poles, jet enmiission
streams, or refracted moonlight and
THOUGHT they were the comet, but you
never would have seen the comet and if
you did then you’re lying and I don’t want
to hear aboirt it. Any reports by farmers
that they sighted the comet are purely
lies as farmers are always claiming they
are seeing new things on the horizon.
Indeed, we should be startled to find that
they are not charging us extra for it. Tlie
guy that “discovered it” (show us the
goods) is a Czech astronomer, renown
world-wide as one of the best in his field,
named Lubos Kohoutek. But
he sure did know how to buU well enough
to get a free trip to sunny Florida and
Cape “Whatever it is now”. Well, Lubos,
you sure had us fooled out there with our
telescopes in the freezing cold.
The Drama dept, had a little get-
together the afternoon of Wednesday,
February 20, to make announcements,
discuss next year’s trip to England, plan
shows to come, and other tid-bits. For
those of you who do not know, the Drama
department NEVER meets like that to
discuss its “inner workings,” or even just
to get together for the hell of it as a
department. Difficult as it is to get the
drama students together it is even more
difficult to get the drama facidty
together just long enough to have tea and
the proverbial crumpets. Before this
meeting it seemed that the only time the
drama people convened was to hear
Polish people (or men sympathetic to
their cause) speak on acting; and there
was enough Hungarian goulash passed
down between those two to feed a whole
mime troupe. Anyway, if nothing else
comes from the gatherings each month
(as they are planned), it will simply be
that students and faculty can sit and talk
as a forum for a change, and that alone is
good.
The administration decided that the
incident concerning the student who
“claims” he was attacked by a “big guy
with a chain saw” could easUy be settled
by “returning the hewed limb of the
victim” and let bygones be bygones in
the hope that a similar incident would not
occur. Detective Matt Kniphe, chief
investigator in the case, said “the victim
hasn’t got a leg to stand on” as far as
getting charges pressed was concerned.
And since no blood was spilled (it was an
artificial limb) the case should be
dropped in the best interest of both
parties. The chain saw, however, was
subpoenaed for questioning in a linking
incident where a local tree was molested
while modeling for a Design & Produc
tion scene painting class!
Shawn Nelson is a senior drama major.