Editorial
Federal aid change
helpful and realistic
The U.S. Senate and the Internal Revenue Service have
recently acted on student aid related items.
The Senate voted 93-1. Jesse Helms dissenting, to ap
prove a five-year extension of federal student aid programs
at a level higher than the Reagan administration wants.
The IRS has begun diverting loan defaulters' tax refunds
to help repay their debts.
The government is finally approaching student aid in a
hard-nosed yet practical manner.
Students whose socioeconomic background does not
permit them to use their own or family resources to pay for
college should have the opportunity to obtain higher
education.
People who take advantage of government programs to
attend college, and who make enough to repay their loans,
should not be able to thumb their noses at the government
and drive off in their Audis.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, former
students defaulted on $1.3 billion in loans in fiscal 1985
alone. Many of these are small loans made to people who did
not complete their degrees and have low incomes, according
to Department of Education officials.
The newly-mandated IRS enforcement campaign is not
directed at these people, but at those in higher income
brackets who can afford to repay their loans. The new Senate
legislation also requires garnishment of the wages of all
federal employees who defaulted on student loans. This pro
vision is not included in a House version of the appropria
tions bill.
Student aid programs are a form of borrowing from
future generations to invest in the educational health of the
nation. Such programs only make sense if future generations
have similar opportunities. These opportunities are
threatened by people who can repay their loans, but don't.
Borrowing from the next generation becomes stealing from
future students.
The bill passed by the Senate provides up to $9.4 billion
in aid for the first of the five years of the authorization. The
bill raises the amount available to low income students, but
will make it harder for some middle income families to
receive aid.
According to Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island,
after whom direct student grants are named, the buying
power of "Pell” grants has decreased by about 20 percent in
the past four years. Both the recently passed Senate bill and
an earlier House appropriation recognize this by raising the
ceding for grant size to students in need.
Because the House bill includes a higher amount and
higher ceilings, a House-Senate conference committee must
meet to recommend compromise figures to both chambers.
Students receiving aid will also have to show satisfac
tory academic progress at the end of two years in order to
continue receiving aid.
Some middle class families may now need to use more
of their own money to send students to college. The govern
ment cannot provide everything to everyone, and people
must make choices. If that means not buying that new car in
order to send Jane to college for a year instead, so be it.
Higher education is an opportunity for some citizens
with appropriate academic backgrounds to prepare
themselves for important roles in the future of the nation and
the world. This opportunity should not be denied for
reasons of wealth, nor because past beneficiaries refuse to
pay their debts.
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*1 fool SAFER knowing wo might bo klllod In a traffic accidont
right hare at homo than by torroriata abroad...”
Letters
Mad as hell
As many ODE readers are no
doubt aware, there are some
serious problems in the ASUO's
management of the student
group health insurance pro
gram. Ever since the ASUO,
then under the Pinckney ad
ministration. gave the contract
to l,one Star insurance of Dallas.
Texas, we insured students
have experienced a multiplicity
of hard times with the insurer.
Claims paid months late, in
amounts often less than the con
tracted BO percent payout, and
without 1.5 percent monthly in
terest when paid after fourteen
days, are only the tip of the
iceberg.
Students should be deman
ding a full investigation and
audit of the situation. Many of
us have been ripped off and
don't even know it. The
ASUO's insurance coordinator
receives $B.50 hourly and her
assistant gets $4.50 an hour, yet
when students turn to them for
help with these problems, we're
told to "call the insurer's (BOO)
number and tell them
yourself "
The media has been alerted
and the Oregon Insurance Com
mission and Attorney General
will soon be notified. The time
is now for concerned students
to complain about their in
surance problems to Mr. Bill
Kittredge in the ASUO Office of
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Student Advocacy, phone:
686-3722.
Let's get mad as hell and do
something to help ourselves!
Willy Bils
Law
U.O. Students for
Equity in Insurance
Editor's Note — According to
ASUO officials, the contract
with Lone Star was signed by
the Julie Davis administration,
and all complaints against Lone
Star Insurance will be handled
first by the ASUO insurance
coordinator in the ASUO Ex
ecutive office. Suite 4, EMU.
686-3724. If the complaint can
not be resolved, the ASUO
[*>gal Services attorney, not the
student advocate, will handle
further complaints against the
insurance company.
Big Sister
Women on campus are lucky
there are so many big, strong
men who have paid their taxes
and helped to pay for the new
shuttle van. It's a small price to
pay to protect our girlfriends.
Women are also lucky they
have big. strong student govern
ment to take care of them. Many
SafeRide coordinators are
heterosexual, and some are
even men!
It is therefore lucky for
everyone that we had a big.
strong ASUO president who
saw fit to provide a public ser
vice that would establish once
and for all that men are poten
tial rapists.
r
Women aren’t becoming in
dependent through SafeRide,
they are merely shifting their
dependence to Big Sister
government, funded by yours
truly.
Now we are told that the anti
men SafeRiders are right —
because of one incident at
UCLA, a much larger school
than the UO, involving a walk
ing escort service once in litiga
tion which probably hasn’t been
concluded, all men are
therefore unfit to escort women.
No. We could take this thing
to court, and the men-lovers on
campus (the bastards) would
win. As Hiawatha pointed out,
tax-funded public services can
not discriminate on the basis of
sex. Furthermore, the anti-male
bile of the lesbian community
would probably boil over, caus
ing a pleasurable disturbance in
court.
The organizers of SafeRide
are split — many, such as new
ASUO Vice President Caitlin
Cameron, decidedly not les
bian. seriously want to see the
project get off the ground and
provide a real service. Others,
such as former SafeRide coor
dinator Mercea Mabrey, can’t
leave the issue in peace, and
feel the constant need to remind
men that they are the source of
the problem, and that is why
men pay for SafeRide but can’t
use it.
Now you tell me, is that
stupid?
James R. Young
Senior
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