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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1998)
CARS The Beetle is back! Volkswagon unveiled a new generation of the best selling bug tu v decades after the last new one was sold in the United States PAGE 3A SPORTS Stanford upends Ducks Kris Weems scored 34 to lead the No. 7 Cardinal to an 89-67victory > over Oregon and stretch the Stanford winning streak to 13games PAGE 7A TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1998 TODAY The Student Health Center will offer free cholesterol screeningfrom 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. WEATHER Today Partly Cloudy High 65. Low 35. Wednesday Partly Cloudy High 65. Low 35. Financial Aid Financial Aid Disbar semen{ : Form On*:5 Line Hem CHAD PATTESON/Emerald Student Loan Manager Jim Heiss (left) helps students pick up financial aid checks at Oregon Hall on Monday. Jan. 1 was the first day for students to submit their federalfinancial aid applications for the 1998-99 school year. students can access online form The online application is an easier, but not necessarily faster, way for students to apply for federal aid this year By Teri Meeuwsen Higher Education Reporter Well, it’s that time of year again. The holidays are over, the new year has been brought in, and students are be ginning to apply for financial aid for the 1998-99 school year. The first day for students to submit their federal financial aid applications was Jan. 1, and they will continue to be accepted until March 1. Applying for financial aid has become easier for students to handle, financial aid counselor Sheree Houck said. The application has been changed over the past few years, and the electronic process has improved, she said. “The numbers [of applicants and amount of aid] have gone up the past few years,” she said. The projected number of recipients re ceiving federal aid for the 1997-98 school year is 8,200, receiving an approximate total of $04,205,000. This year, the use of the World Wide Web is being encouraged to make apply ing easier for students. The Web site, www.fafsa.ed.gov, takes students step by-step through the application form, Houck said. “It makes it a lot easier,” she said. “In stead of deciding to fill out the blue form or the gray form or both, [the program] Turn to AID, Page 3A PFC grants funding for UO programs The committee's goal is to allow for more student control over which groups receive money By Kristina Rudinskas Student Activities tteporter Dan Reid, Michelle Johnson and Erin Ivory are worth about $2.5 million dollars at the University. They are all members of the ASUO Pro grams Finance Committee, which allocates money to more than 100 ASUO programs. Student unions, legal services, the Desig nated Driver Shuttle, child care services and campus recycling are just a few of the pro grams that are financed through the inci dental fees the committee provides each year. "Oregon is one of the few schools with this kind of student control over this amount of money,” Johnson said. Student incidental fees last year raised a little less than $6 million to help fund stu dent athletics, the EMU and student pro grams. The PFC handles about one-third of that. “In other schools there are more checks and balances, more processes to go through before students and groups can have access to money,” Reid said. “The PFC is more straightforward and interactive with stu dents, with almost no administration partic ipation until the very end of the process.” Programs are first recognized by the Stu dent Senate before submitting a budget pro posal to the PFC in December. The PFC re views the proposal and debates each line item during budget hearings winter term. The committee’s recommendations go to the ASUO executives and then to the Uni versity president for approval. The Oregon State Board of Education has final approval over the budgets. The PFC decides how much money is al located to programs based on how well they used their money the previous year, what opportunities they developed for new lead ers and how active they were on campus, Johnson said. Turn tn PCP Ptano QA ASUO will lobby Congress for changes to Higher Education Act This is the second story in a week-long series of articles that will look at what the ASUO hopes to accomplish winter tenn The ASUO legislative team plans to collaborate with the Oregon Student Association to work for beneficial changes By Doug Irving Student Activities Editor Congress will tinker with the basic skele ton of higher education this year. That could help students by raising funding caps and increasing financial aid programs. It could hurt students by elimi nating programs and decreasing financial aid. The ASUO’s legislative team will spend winter term working to keep the changes on the positive side. Congress will discuss how to reauthorize the Higher Education Act during the com ing legislative session. The act governs na tional higher education programs, includ ing Pell Grants and federal loans. “It’s the biggest thing coming out of Con gress that’s going to affect students direct ly," said Morgan Cowling, ASUO federal relations associate. “We’re hoping to be loud, stir something up.” The legislative team collaborated with the Oregon Student Association to take on the reauthorization for winter term. Stu dent groups throughout the country are also lobbying legislators to make changes that benefit students. The campaign will last until Congress finalizes its plan. Congress created the Higher Education Act in 1965 as a way to regulate higher ed ucation spending. The act comes up for reauthorization every five years. During that process, Congress can shuf fle its funding between programs. It can also redefine programs and effectively can cel programs by giving them no funding. “There’s so much in [the act] that any body will find something interesting in it,” said Ed Dennis, executive director of the Oregon Student Association. “People don’t even know what it is, but they know some of the issues.” For example, the Higher Education Act provides for scholarship programs for stu dents of color and women. It also includes grants for students with children. Those are Turn to ASUO, Page 4A ^ It’s the biggest thing coming out of Congress that’s going to affect students directly. ” Morgan Cowling ASUO federal relations associate
