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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1985)
Oregon daily emerald ^ Sidelines Service 2 See Page IB Wednesday, February 13, 1985 Eugene, Oregon Volume 86, Number 98 Aid director analyzes effects of budget By Michael Hosmar Of Ihe Emerald About 3,500 University students could be affected by President Ronald Reagan's proposed financial aid cuts announced Feb. 4, Ed Vignoul, financial aid direc tor, said Tuesday. No president has ever asked for larger cuts in finan cial aid programs, he said. Current financial aid programs would be reduced 25 percent under Reagan's proposal. This would eliminate $2.3 billion of student financial assistance Ed Vignoul and Guaranteed Student Loans for fiscal 1986, accor ding to the Feb. 5 newsletter of the National Associa tion of Student Financial Aid Administrators! After digging through 5,000 individual University student files, Vignoul said he and his staff used a com puter program to analyze how the proposed cuts would affect the University. About 485 University students now receiving a total of about $900,000 in aid would not be eligible for financial aid under Reagan's proposal because their families make more than $25,000 a year, he said. About 750 University students, 15 percent of GSL recipients, would no longer be eligible for GSLs because their families’ adjusted gross income is more than $32,500, he said. The $32,500 limit would eliminate about $1.4 million from the University's GSL funds, he added. And 2800 University students who currently receive more than $4,000 in aid each year might not be able to afford college if Reagan’s $4,000 annual finan cial aid ceiling is approved, he said. ‘‘These are just proposals. People "" ’ something about it,” Vignoul said. Students and educators shouldn’t hesitate to write their congressman to let him know how they would be affected personally by the cuts, he added. "Dependent students from middle income families would get the shaft,” he said. For instance, Vignoul knows of a family from Portland with an annual income of $33,200 a year that would be severely hurt by Reagan’s proposed cuts. The father in the family is a teacher and the mother works full time. The two children they are sending through college receive about $2,500 each in financial aid, he said. Under Reagan’s proposal, this family would not be eligible for any financial assistance because its an nual income is more than $25,000. Single parents would be hit hard by the $4,000 ceiling on the total amount of aid students can receive each year. Vignoul said. Vignoul knows of a 23-year-old single parent that currently receives more than $8,000 in financial aid to attend the University . If Reagan’s proposals are approv ed, “there’s no way she can go to school.” The current student aid programs are working well even though they are underfunded, Vignoul said. “It’s the old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ ” The Reagan administration believes students should work their way through college, Vignoul said. Most students can’t do that because the costs of a col lege education are higher today, he said. The proposed cuts don’t make sense, Vignoul said, because the administration has been campaigning for excellence in higher education. Excellence can’t be achieved with fewer funds, he said. Proposed aid cuts These are the financial aid cuts in President Ronald Reagan ’s proposed budget for fiscal 1986: •Families with adjusted gross income above $25,000 would be ineligible for federal grants, direct loans or work study jobs. •Students from low-income families could receive, earn or borrow no more than $4,000 a year in federal aid. •All funding for Student Educational Oppor tunity Grants, State Student incentive Grants, or National Direct Student Loans would be eliminated. •Students from families with adjusted gross income above $32,500 would no longer qualify for subsidized loans regardless of their financial need. •Borrowers of Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students would be charged a 1 percent guaranteed fee to cover the estimated defaults within the program. •Students would be required to contribute 40 percent, a maximum of $800, of the cost of atten dance through work before receiving a Pell Grant. Pell Grants would be limited to $2,100 per year. In addition to these individual program changes, Reagan’s budget also requires that ail students prpvkie at least $800 annually to their total educational costs to qualify for federal aid. Finally. Reagan 'simdgef requests that all stu dent aid programs except the GSL, be replaced with a single state block grant program. States, within broad federal guidelines, would be responsibile for allocating the aid including the mix of grants, jobs and loans from each state and school. (Source: National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Newsletter, Feb. 5} btudent interns succeed m wilderness case By Paul Ertelt Of the Emerald A federal injunction Monday pro hibiting the Forest Service from building a road in a wild area in Idaho will have a major impact on future Forest Service ac tions, said M: :hael Axline, co-director of the law school’s environmental law clinic. The decision, handed down by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, also reflects well on the clinic, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, and on Nancy Hellerud and Stephen Suagee. two student legal in terns who filed a brief in the case, he said. The injunction ordered the Forest Ser vice to refrain from developing the Jersey lack roadless area in the Nez Perce Na tional Forest of central Idaho until it completes studies required under the federal Environmental Protection and Endangered Species acts. “The opinion has national ramifica tions. The Forest Service is in the pro cess of deciding what to do with all roadless areas throughout the United States,” Axline said. “This opinion tells the Forest Service that it cannot go charging into these areas like a bull in a china shop without disclosing to the public exactly what they plan to do with these areas.” The Forest Service had planned to build a network of roads into the area in order to promote timber harvesting, but had concealed its intentions from the public, Axline said. An important recreation area, Jersey Jack has one of the best elk herds in the country and attracts visitors from all 50 states, Axline said. In 1982, a coalition of ranchers, guides and outfitters, who feared that logging would threaten their businesses, asked the clinic to represent them in a lawsuit against the Forest Service. The area is also part of the north-south migratory corridor essential to the recovery of the rare gray wolf, Hellerud said. If there is any possibilty of an en dangered species living in an area, the Forest Service is required to consult with Fish and Wildlife Department before proceeding with development, which it failed to do in this case, she said. Witnesses in the case testified that they had seen gray wolves in the area, Suagee said, but even if there had been no sightings, a Forest Service biological evaluation indicated that the area was a suitable habitat for the wolves, and thus protected by the endangered species act. Suagee accused the Forest Service of using “word games" to conceal its true intentions in the area. It originally released plans for only two timber sales, but the long-delayed biological study revealed that its long-range plans includ ed about 12 sales, he said. According to the injunction, the Forest Service must complete an Environmen tal Impact Statement and consider the cumulative environmental impact, par ticularly on the gray wolf, before pro ceeding with the road, Hellerud said. One of the three judges on the panel that heard the case highly praised the quality of the brief submitted by the in terns, Axline said. “It’s nice to get that compliment, but it’s really a compliment to the clinic,” Nancy Hellenic! Suagee said. The clinic serves as a public interest law firm that gives law students a chance to gain practical experience on significant cases, he said. Axline is proud of the success of the clinic, which was founded about seven years ago. “The clinic has never lost a case,” he said.
