Thursday, January 21, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 83
emerald
Education bill
won’t benefit
too many vets
By Ann Portal
Ot tht Emarald
A Congressional bill passed in November appeared
to extend veteran's educational benefits, but the new
law actually means nothing for University veterans
Hilda Young, director of the veteran's affairs office
at the University, said she hoped the new law would
help University veterans who are nearing the 10-year
deadline for using educational benefits
However, the new law, which extends the 10-year
deadline through Jan 31, 1983, contains some restric
tions that will prevent all current or prospective Univer
sity student veterans from taking advantage of the
extension
"It's very unclear as to who qualifies," Young said
University veterans wrote to the Portland Veteran's
Administration and Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon, but
the letters they received didn't answer any questions,
she said Young called the Portland Veteran's Admin
istration two weeks ago, only to learn they were unsure
what the new law meant.
Louis Smith, veteran's services officer at the
Portland Veteran's Administration, said Wednesday
that the national veteran's office recently sent his office
a clarification on the new law
"1 here are not going to be very many people who
qualify for benefits under this delimiting date," Smith
said
The law's wording says that it "extends for certain
Vietnam-era veterans the period in which the Gl Bill
educational assistance benefits may be used for the
pursuit of certain training "
"Certain veterans" is spelled out later in the bill as
only those who do not have a high school diploma and
are in need of vocational or job training because they
are unskilled
"When they say unskilled, they mean they have no
skills of any kind," said another Veteran's Administra
tion staff member
Smith said the "certain training" bill covers in
cludes only apprenticeship and on-the-job training
programs Vocational community college courses
would be covered, but not community college courses
that apply toward bachelor’s degrees
Young said "quite a few” college-level veterans in
the Eugene area could have used an extension of the
unused portion of their educational benefits, including
some veterans who enrolled at the University this term
hoping the extension would continue their benefits
The monthly check has run out for those students,
she said
r
Photo by Bob Baker
Sen. Bob Packwood spoke on the application of the First Amendment to print and electronic mass media.
Senator advocates media rights
By Ron Hunt
Of &»• Emtmfd
The First Amendment should apply to all forms of
communication — electronic as well as print media,
Sen Bob Packwood, R-Ore , advocated Wednesday.
“I’m convinced that’s what our founders would
have done,” Packwood told and EMU audience at a
session sponsored by the University's journalism
school. Packwood chairs the Senate commerce com
mittee which oversees national communication policy
Most mass communication will be electronic soon,
Packwood said, not print in the historic sense And
because the government has the power to regulate
content and licensing of electronic media, he said, the
First Amendment is in a precarious position.
"The power to regulate communications is the
power to regulate freedom,” he said.
America has three options, Packwood said. It can
do nothing, but the Supreme Court and Federal Com
munications Commission could continue to decide
against press freedom It can decide that this is 1982,
not 1787, and that the First Amendment is no longer
relevant because the government has the right to
control the airwaves
Or it can apply the First Amendment — "the
bedrock of other liberties" — to electronic media
"Without its provisions, no other liberties are long
secure."
Government power must be restricted, Pack wood
said, because otherwise “it’s going to impose its
convictions of what is right on the rest of us." The Alien
and Sedition Act, the "Red Scare” around 1920,
McCarthyism in the 1950s, Watergate, and the 1942
decision to imprison Americans of Japanese ancestry
are all examples of unrestrained power, he said.
Because the government often reacts in the
"passion of the moment,” Packwood said, values like
freedom of the press must be put down on paper where
they can't be changed "If they’re not written in, the
passions will come.”
Packwood also criticized those with a “Cotton
Mather morality” — those opposed to abortion and
busing and who favor prayer in the schools. If they have
their way, "next year it can be assembly or free speech”
that's abandoned, he said.
During the question and answer period Jerry Rust,
Lane County commissioner, said government is not
trying to regulate the content of cable television but is
merely attempting to protect the public from the "de
facto monopoly of a company” on public airwaves.
“Cable is not a monopoly,” Packwood said,
because so many sources of information exist in the
community. Even if cable was a monopoly, that wouldn’t
be a sufficient reason for government regulation. Only
eight daily newspapers were publishing when the
Constitution was written, but the signers were still
committed to freedom of expression, he added.
Financial aid hopefuls need to apply soon
By Ann Portal
Of Iff Emmrmfd
Students wanting to be considered
for financial aid for the 1982-83 school
year should begin applying immediate
ly
March 1 is the deadline for priority
consideration of financial aid applica
tions and the "absolute" deadline for
general University scholarship applica
tions, according to Carol Richard,
assistant financial aid director
Richard reminds students that the
the competition for financial aid this
year will be tough, as it was last year
"We had twice as many scholarship
applications completed for 1981-82 as
we had the year before," she says
Although the financial aid office
needs to receive the processed
applications by March, the actual
allocation of financial aid may take
place much later than usual this year,
says Ed Vignoul, financial aid director
Congress still has not settled on an
amount of funding for federal financial
aid programs next year. A "continuing
resolution" that Congress passed
before its Christmas break provides
financial aid funds only through March
31, allowing the level of aid to be
severely altered after that date.
The College Work-Study Program,
Pell Grants (the new name for Basic
Educational Opportunity Grants)
Supplemental Educational Opportunity
Grants and National Direct Student
Loans all face possible cuts. In addi
tion, Congress may place even stricter
limitations on Guaranteed Student
Loans
"The potential impact is just incre
dible," Vignoul says.
His office usually begins mailing aid
offers around the first of May. Even
without the federal money "in hand,”
the office has successfully gambled on
those offers in the past, Vignoul says.
Last year, the money did not arrive until
July 1, which delayed the handing out
of summer term aid and forced all
financial aid offers to^be refigured dur
ing August
"But I’m not going to do that this
year,” Vignoul says. “There’s too much
at stake.”
At least 60 percent of the students at
the University receive some type of
financial aid, Richard says. For the
1981-82 school year, the University
dispensed about $20 million in loans
and grants and approximately $180,000
in general scholarships.
Dependent students and their
parents as well as self-supporting
independent students must submit the
financial aid form to the College
Scholarship Service in Berkeley, Calif
The CSS provides a detailed financial
analysis of the student's resources to
the University's financial aid office. The
analysis takes about three weeks, so
applicants should mail the financial aid
form to the service by Feb 1 to ensure
full consideration for aid, Richard says.
"Every year, the priority deadline has
become more important because more
students have applied early, expenses
have gone up and federal monies have
gone down," she said.
"Beating the deadline by several
weeks won ’t give you an edge on others
who make it by only a week, but missing
the deadline may eliminate your
chances altogether because some
types of aid may already be allocated
for the year.”
For further information, contact the
(financial aid office, 260 Oregon Hall,
686-3221.