Informational Mootiny Tmday, February 1 5:00 p.m. Canon Cola Room nlicationt available al the falton Hontino Office. Application* intino U foi Fob roary I. An | ( VAA untimillci] »«> ■, ohwf jI divtT\«> «nd in A NEW YEAR'S SPECIAL Oregon west Fitness is the place to work outf Oregon West FITNESS - Best Hours Best Prices ★ 7 Days a week 6am-l 1pm ★ 485-1624 ©D Uu NEW YEAR'S SPECIAL I • $35 per month till the i end of the school year. I • NO Initiation Fee I • Pay by the Month I Expires 1/24/94 I Oklc.on Wi st F I T N f b S L 1475 r-ramcim tsiva. Across from campus 485-1624 I I J UNIVERSITY USSA starts lobby for federal support By Eric Buckhalter fr* Orpffan I ■Jt.fy l •W.J'iJ The nation’s only student-run lobbying organization for educa tion convened at the University this past weekend and kic ked off its campaign calling for more fed eral support of education. The United States Student Association, the oldest and largest student organization, had its hoard of directors meeting at the University to discuss its action plan for the "Re-cut the Pie — 1 Pen ent More for Educa tion” campaign. For the 1994 fiscal year. Con gress allotted 1 M percent, or $30 billion, of the federal budget to finance primary, secondary and post-secondary educ ation The USSA will lobby Congress and President Bill Clinton to increase education's slice of the federal pie by another 1 (lervent. or nlxwt SIS billion, for the 1995 fiscal year. Ste phan ie BI oom i ngd ale. USSA’s field director, said the time is right to capitalize on the "Re-cut the Pie" campaign "As a nation, we can't afford a mere 1 H percent spent on edu cation. it is too important; we have to spend more." she said. Bloomingdale said the cam paign will support the progres sive amendment introduced by Sen (aines Jeffords, R-Vermont. wine h will iru roase the educa tion budget by 1 percent every vear until it is 10 perc ent of the entire federal budget As the* ( old War threat dimin ishes Bloomingdale critic iml the large amount ($240 billion) the nation continues to spend on defense "We spend more on defense than Russia. Libya, Cuba. Iran. Iraq. North Korea and China com bined Of course vve don't want to get bombed, but we must he more reasonable about w here w e put our money." she said. "With another $15 billion we could send HOO.213 students to Harvard, or 3,355,714 students to Me higan State University, or 53,571,42H students to West Val ley Community College in Cali fornia. she said "Or we could buv Centurian Attack Sub marines at about $1.3 billion a piec e." Looking to the future. USSA members are pressuring elected leaders to make educ ation one of the nation's top priorities Bloom ingdale said that battling crime and unemployment begins with a solid educational system, one which she said deserves more federal interest "It's been too long since the nation has concerned itself with education." Bloomingdale said " We’re not asking for higher tax es; we're asking that more tax dol lars be spent on education. We want a bigger pie< e of the pie "I think it's important that we as students work on (lettering this nation's system of education," she said. USSA President Tchiyuka Cor nelius said the organization's opponents depend on the issue at hand USSA members noted that one opponent of cutting defense spending is Sen. Sam Nunn. D-Georgia. who USSA Vice President Stephanie Arel lano said is looking for other areas to cut. Nunn said that some students take advantage of the govern ment's Pell Grant Program and are often fraudulent in repaving educational debts. Arellano said. "Few students commit fraud." Arellano said, "and this is not an excuse to cut the program, it is an excuse to reform it.” One federally implemented program the USSA scrutinized is the Direct Lending Program, which would cut out the role of hanks, which charge lending fees. The government would loan money direi tly to students, and repayment of this loan would he hased on a fixed percentage of a recipients income after gradua tion. Arellano said that graduates who don't make a lot of money could have a difficult time pay ing off the loan as a percentage of their income The USSA will send a negoti ating team of five students to take part in the Direct Lending Pro gram's rule making process which begins this month. USSA members will take part in the National Student Lobby Day Mart h 22 in Washington. D C . where they will hold a vari ety of meetings and rallies in sup port of its "Re-cut the Pie — 1 Percent More for Education" campaign Students interested in taking part were urged by Cor nelius to t all (2U2) (47-1 SSA for more informal ion. —THE UO STUDENTS OF OBJECTIVISM— Bridging the “Is-Ought” Gap: How to Derive Morality From Facts Wednesday, Jan. 19, 7:30 pm EMU Gumwood Room Free and open to the public