Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, March 08, 2002, Page 4, Image 4

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Budget plan will cut $2.23
million from student grants
■ It has been estimated that
at least 2,000 Oregon students
will be affected by the cuts
By Brook Reinhard
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thousands of low-income stu
dents are likely to lose their
grant money under the Legisla
ture’s latest budget balancing
plan, including hundreds of Uni
versity students.
The Oregon Student Assistance
Commission doles out $40 million
dollars every biennium to low-in
come students in the form of Ore
gon Opportunity Grants, but the
latest budget plan will cut $2.23
million in grant money, which
OSAC spokesman Gene Evans es
timates will impact at least 2,000
Oregon students.
“We know that it’s going to
mean fewer students getting op
portunity grants,” Evans said. The
commission helps students receive
both private and public funding,
but 84 percent of the students it
services rely on public money.
More than 1,900 University stu
dents receive the grants, which
offer students $1,254 a year for
public universities in Oregon.
Evans said that as many as 4,000
more students may be affected in
directly by the Legislature’s budg
et. OSAC gets roughly $6 million
in interest payments from the Edu
cation Endowment Fund, but with
the Legislature’s latest initiative
that asks voters to use $220 million
of the money to fund K-12 educa
tion, those interest payments will
all but disappear.
State Board of Higher Educa
tion student representative Tim
Young said students cannot af
ford to lose their scholarship
money.
“This cut strikes at the heart of
student access,” he said. “Reduc
ing the Oregon Endowment Fund
will have a long-term effect on
scholarship programs.”
But Evans acknowledged the
cuts must come from somewhere. .
“There’s nobody who isn’t in
this boat,” he said. “There are no
good choices to be made.”
Students must come from a
household that makes less than
$38,000 a year to be eligible for the
grants, or $7,400 a year if they’re
on their own. Evans said OSAC
will process students on a first
come, first-serve basis, and expects
the money to go fast. Last year
127,000 Oregon Students filed a
Free Application for Federal Stu
dent Aid. This year, the number is
expected to top 140,000.
“This is a tough time for stu
dents in Oregon,” he said.
E-mail reporter Brook Reinhard
at brookreinhard@dailyemerald.com.
Greenspan says United States may be
heading toward economic recovery
By Robert Manor
Chicago Tribune
(KRT) — Amid a shower of
surprisingly good news, the nor
mally taciturn Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan said
Thursday that the nation is en
route to economic recovery.
“The recent evidence increas
ingly suggests that an economic
expansion is already well under
way,” Greenspan told the Senate
Banking Committee, in unusually
direct language. He sounded a
more optimistic note Thursday
than during his testimony before
the House Financial Services Com
mittee last week.
“It is unmitigated good news,”
said Sherry Cooper, global eco
nomic strategist for the Bank of
Montreal. “Greenspan has gone
from saying ‘There will be a recov
ery’ to saying ‘This is a recovery.’”
If Greenspan is right, then the
United States is pulling out of the
mildest economic downturn since
World War II.
For example, the Labor Depart
ment said new claims for unem
ployment benefits over the past
month fell to 372,750. That is the
lowest level since mid-August.
At the same time, worker pro
ductivity grew at a 5.2 percent
rate in the final quarter of last
year, much higher than the initial
estimate of 3.5 percent. Rising
productivity typically translates
into economic growth, higher
wages and corporate profits with
out inflation.
And manufacturing, in a deep
recession for two years, is showing
signs of vigor.
The nation’s jobless rate is to
be released Friday, and in his
testimony Greenspan did not al
ter the Fed’s forecast that unem
ployment could peak at 6 per
cent to 6.5 percent.
Cooper doesn’t believe it will
rise that high. “But if it happens, it
would be very short-lived,” she
said, as a healthier economy cre
ates jobs for displaced workers.
In any case, unemployment is a
lagging indicator — it shows
where the economy was, not
where it is heading. Businesses
often are reluctant to hire new
workers at the end of a recession,
so unemployment can rise for a
time even after the economy be
gins to strengthen.
“Greenspan has gone
from saying ‘There will
be a recovery’ to saying
‘This is a recovery.’”
Sherry Cooper
global economist
The Federal Reserve cut interest
rates 11 times last year, bringing
them to a 40-year low in an effort
to revive the economy. This al
lowed homeowners to refinance
mortgages and save money, cut the
price of most other loans, and even
allowed automakers to make loans
at zero percent interest.
The good news on interest rates
appears to be over, economists say,
as the Fed worries more about in
flation than about economic weak
ness. The Fed raises interest rates
when inflation is a threat, to slow
the economy.
“The next move is likely to be
higher,” said Paul Kasriel, chief
economist of Chicago-based North
ern Trust. “I would say that by the
end of June or mid-August, they
are going to raise rates.”
The Fed meets again March
19, and the consensus among
economists is that it will hold
rates steady.
Kasriel said he believes the Fed
is too pessimistic about the future
unemployment rate. He said that
depleted inventories of goods and
stronger than expected auto sales
all point to better times ahead. “We
could very well top out at 5.8 per
cent” unemployment, he said.
Kasriel said the recession has
not been gentle with everyone,
however. Businesses bled money
for much of last year, with the
hemorrhaging increasing after the
terrorist attack on Sept. 11. Finan
cial reports for the first three
months of 2002 will be out shortly,
indicating whether corporate
America’s losses have eased.
I
If companies are returning to
profitability, or at least losing less
money, they likely have the
American consumer to thank.
Consumer spending makes up
about two-thirds of the nation’s
economic activity. Consumers
continued to buy homes and cars
and clothes and a myriad of other
goods, despite last year’s weaken
ing economy. Greenspan said that
strength continues.
“Sales have receded somewhat,
but they have remained surpris
ingly resilient,” he said. “Other
consumer spending appears to
have advanced at a solid pace in
recent months.”
But, as is typical for Greenspan’s
public utterances, there is a caveat.
“The dimensions of the pick
up remain uncertain,” he told
the senators.
© 2002, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information services.
-J
Oregon Daily Emerald
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published
daily Monday through Friday during the school
year and Tuesday and Thursday during the
summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald
Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon,
Eugene, OregonThe Emerald operates
independently of the University with offices in
Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The
Emerald is private property. The unlawful
removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law.
NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511
Editor in chief: Jessica Blanchard
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Higher Education: LeonTovey, editor.
Eric Martin, Katie Ellis, reporters
Commentary: Julie Lauderbaugh, editor.
Jacquelyn Lewis, assistant editor. Tara
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Features/Pulse: John Liebhardt, editor. Lisa Toth,
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Freelance: Katie Mayer, editor.
Copy: Jessica Richelderfer, Michael J. Kleckner,
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Design: Russell Weller, editor. A. Scott Abts,
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