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.