The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 15, 1982, Page 8, Image 8
?opinion.
Officials delay ending
Greene Street issue
This university has a reputation tor oeing
politically active, both nationally and internationally.
Distinguished visitors regularly
adorn campus. Funds are poured into the James
F. Byrnes International Center. President #
Holderman has represented the United States in 1
foreign allairs.
Why then, with such influential leadership, J
can't university officials guarantee the closing of ^
Greene Street?
Surely getting one small section of a street
closed is not nearly as difficult as bringing a
foreign minister to Columbia. The issue of
closing Greene Street has been thrown around
and compromised so much that people are
rfrminnci ujoan; of if Thpv arp hpcfinninf to t?pt
TTV-mj V/i. ??. ? ~~0 0 O-apathetic
about the situation.
Columbia City Council is the stumbling block,
but it is simply a body of elected officials trying
to please its constituents. A little pressure in the
right places could put an end to USC's problem.
Although the Greene Street issue is not an
emergency, it is a situation that needs to be
quickly relieved. It has dragged on for too long.
If the university is to maintain a respectable
status, a conclusion must be reached on the
Greene Street controversv once and for all.
V
'Doonesbury' cast
takes short vacation
Beginning in January, the cartoon strip
"Doonesbury" will stop and will not resume until
fall 1984. The strip's creator, Garry Trudeau,
said his characters are "confused and out of
sorts" and "tranced in a time warp."
But for 15 years the cast of "Doonesbury" has
been an identifying source for millions of
readers.
What college student cannot relate with
Zonker Harris? Zonker, a perpetual student, is
afraid to graduate. His pastime is professional
suntanning.
And through "Doonesbury's" Joanie Caucus,
women are allowed to speak out in areas where
before their opinions had lay buried. The ERA
will survive as long as women's libber Joanie
exists.
Rejection by the opposite sex isn't quite so
depressing as long as would-be lover Mike ''The
Man" Doonesbury is around. Mike believes he is
a gift to women, although he's really a romantic
loser.
Unci** Duke never lets things get boring.
Whether he is shooting it out with police in a
hospital's intensive care room or abusing the
Washington Redskins' pension fund because it
was ''just sitting there," we never quite know
what to expect from him.
People growing up in the '60s and '70s
developed an affinity with the "Doonesbury"
characters. "Doonesbury s" readers have
grown up, but the characters have had trouble
adjusting to the '80s. Making the cast grow into
today's society has been Trudeau's problem and
is one of the reasons for the cartoon's vacation.
Saying goodbye to Zonker, Joanie, Mike and
Uncle Duke, even for only 18 months, is similar
to saying goodbye to old friends.
f Gamecock? .
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Richard Meyers
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Sports Kditor Tom Coyne Business Manager . . . Jean llatchell
Asst. Sports Kditor. Dennis Switzer Production Manager Mark McEwan
Newsroom 777-718/ Advertising 777-42iy
Business Office 777 3HH8 Production 777 2S33
The Gamecock welcomes letters and guest editorials All letters <irid guest
editorials must be typewritten, triple spacea on a oo space urn-.
Letters should be no longer than 300 words and guest editorials should be
limited to one newsworthy subject no longer than four typed pages Letters
and guest editorials MUST be signed with the writer's name, telephone
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We reserve the right to edit guest editorials and letters
Address letters and columns to: Opinion Page Editor, Gamecock, Drawer
A, USC, Columbia. S.C. 29208.
K flj
-letters
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By Edward M. Elmendorf
Newspaper, radio and TV reports of
substantial cuts in federal financial
aid to college students have triggered
a barrage of phone calls to the U.S.
Department of Education in
Washington, D.C.
Callers, both students and parents,
are often confused by misleading or
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incomplete iiiiuMiiauuu. lvianjr nave
expressed fear that the government
has let them down, that college is no
longer affordable.
It is true that student financial
assistance programs have undergone
considerable change in the past two
years. There have, been some
reductions. Most of the changes,
however, reflect an effort to return
the aid programs to their original
purpose, which was to help students
cover the cost of a college educationnot
to carry the whole burden. A
successful return to the original intent
will help ensure the survival of these
aid programs for future students.
FEDERAL FINANCIAL assistance
is divided into three categories.
"Grants" are awards of money that
do not have to be paid back. "Loans"
are borrowed money that a student
must repay with interest. "WorkStudy"
provides the chance to work
and earn money to offset college costs
while attending classes.
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the best known of the federal student
aid programs. Formerly called the
Basic Educational Opportunity
1 Grant, Pell is often the first source of
' aid in a package that may be composed
of other federal and non-federal
[ sources. In the 1982-83 school year,
2.55 million students share
$2,279,040,000 in Pell Grants.
The U.S. Department of Education
uses a standard formula to determine
who qualifies for Pell Grants.
Students should contact the college
financial aid administrator to apply
on the free "Application for Federal
Student Aid." This is the form used
for all federal student aid programs.
The department guarantees that each
participating school will receive the
money it needs to pay Pell Grants to
plioihlp st.nrients
THE SUPPLEMENTAL
EDUCATIONAL Opportunity Grant
provides another mechanism for
making awards to students. SEOG is
different from the Pell Grant in that it
is managed by the financial aid administrator
of each participating
college. Each school receives a set
amount of money from the department,
and when that money is gone,
there are no more SEOG funds for the
J year.
icial aid share c
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f(
In 1982-83 the Department of g
Education will provide 440,000 si
students with $278,400,000 in Sup- a
plemental Educational Opportunity 1<
Grants. Students will get up to $2,000 a
year under this program.
Grant programs are designed to b
help the most needy students get a 8
college education. The Pell Grant in $
particular is targeted to help those u
students whose families earn less *
than $12,000 per year. Grant aid is not j
meant to cover all college costs but is t
expected to be combined with a
reasonable contribution from the f
student's family and individual self- ?
help, generally in the form of loans, (
private scholarships and work. <
AINUTHErt 1 Y PJcJ OI siuaeni 1
financial assistance is the College *
Work-Study Program. Designed to
provide on- or off-campus jobs for
undergraduate and graduate students (
who need financial assistance, WorkStudy
is usually managed by the
college financial aid administrator.
Some 950,000 students will receive
$528 million under this program in
1982-83.
A great deal of publicity has been
generated lately on federal student
loans, particularly the National
Direct Student Loan Program.
Although all rnllpups Hr? not nar
ticipate in the NDSL program, 3,340 of
them do. This program makes
available low interest (5 percent)
loans that students must begin
repaying six months after completing
school (either graduating, leaving or
dropping below partime status). Up
to 10 years is allowed to repay the
loan.
Application is made to a school's
financial aid administrator, who
manages the loan fund. The fund is a
revolving account, designed to allow a
school to continually make new loans
as existing loans are repaid. About
800,000 students will receive NDSL's
in 1982-83, 10,000 more than in 1981-82.
Recently, Secretary of Education T.
H. Bell signed a regulation that
provides for an institution to reduce
the default rate of its NDSL program
fund. A college that has a default rate
over 25 percent is asked to turn
responsibility for collecting the debt
over to the federal government. If an
institution is not prepared to do this
and the default rate remains 25
percent or more, the federal government
will cut off NDSL funding.
THE GUARANTEED STUDENT
Loan Program, much in the news
lately, makes available low interest
loans to students, with the federal
government paying the interest while
a student is in school. These loans are
made by a lender (such as a bank,
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ollege costs
redit union or savings and loan
ssociation) and insured by either the
ideral government or a state
uarantee agency. This, the largest
tudent aid program, will make
vailable more than $9.5 billion in
)ans during the 1982-83 school year.
Undergraduate students can
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raduate students can borrow up to
5,000 under GSL. The total debt an
indergraduate can carry is $12,500.
^or graduate or professional study,
his figure is $25,000. A student
sorrower whose family income is less
han $30,000 automatically qualifies
or an interest-subsidized loan,
itudents whose family income exceeds
$30,000 may still be eligible for
jSL interest benefits, if the college's
inancial aid administrator deter
nines that the student has demonstrated
financial need.
A new loan program begun in 1981,
called the Auxiliary Loan (or PLUS)
Program, allows parents, independent
students and graduate
students to borrow up to $3,000 a year.
There is no income cut-off for
eligibility. The interest on PLUS loans
will be lowered from 14 to 12 percent
sometime in October as a result of
lower average U.S. Treasury bill
interest rates.
AS THE economy continues to
recover, we can expect a continued
lowering of interest rates, thus easing
student repayment costs and reducing
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Reagan administration has embarked
on a major initiative to collect
delinquent and defaulted loans under
the National Direct and Guaranteed
Student Loan Programs. It is anticipated
that $80 million will be
collected in 1983. Congress has been
asked to allow funds collected on
delinquent loans to be recycled in the
loan programs; under present law,
such funds are returned to the U.S.
Treasury. Returning money to the
loan funds would make more money
available to future college students.
Student aid reforms proposed by the
Keagan administration re-establish
the fundamental principle that a
student and his or her family share
the primary responsibility for
meeting college costs. The federal
and state governments have a role in
bridging the gap between what a
family can reasonably contribute and
the cost of attending college. Only by
maintaining nscai integrity can
the federal government continue to
play its part in bridging this gap
through student aid programs.
The author is the deputy assistant
secretary for Student Financial
Assistance for the Department of
Education.