Loquitur
Friday, April 1,2005
The
A&E Movieoke Page 6
Cabrini College’s Student Newspaper
Radnor, Pa.
www.theLoquitur.com
Sports Women’s Track Page 15
Vol LXVV, Issue 20
Proposed Bush plan gashes loan programs ALYSSA SCHOENLEBER PERSPECTIVES & COPY EDITOR AMS725@CABRINI.EDU Bush’s proposed spending plan, if approved, could eradicate one-third of government programs in the U.S. Education Department. Loans like the Perkins Program, the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program (LEAP) and the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program would be eliminated while some savings from these would be deposited into larger Pell Grants. The proposed spending plan of $2.57-trillion for 2006 is both “good and bad news for lowincome students,” according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Pell Grant maximum of $500 would be raised to $4,500 over the next five years and while some college leaders are accepting and satisfied with possible change, others weren’t so fond of the idea. A Pennsylvania Democrat, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, termed the proposal “nonsensical and utterly irresponsible.” According to The Chronicle, those satisfied with possible change, however, were not accepting of the elimination of the Perkins Loan Program, which Bush-administration officials say would be eliminated because of its limited reach. The Chronicle says with these changes, colleges would be required “to return the federal share of the money they
KRT
President Bush’s proposed plan could effect the financial status of many students
used to make the new Perkins Loan to students from low-and middle-income families.” Cabrini currently allocates $120,000 each year in Perkins Loans to financial-need students. Between $1,000 and maximum of $2,000 is distributed to 80-90 students. Mike Colahan, director of financial aid, said, “Bigger colleges have more at stake; they’ll feel the impact” if the plan is passed. Scholarships and grants are given and the Perkins is a small augmentation to that, however, they are “getting trimmed as well.” Although it has no been finalized, Colahan said, the Work-Study Program is expected to go down as well as the Federal
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG). Elimination of LEAP, a program in which the federal government matches the dollar-fordollar amount a state spends on need-based aid to low-income students. Removing this would call upon no changes being made to the monetary amount given by the government for Federal Work-Study and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants for the next year. Money to pay for the $19 billion cost of the plan was never proposed in the plan; it would be funded strictly from the savings through changes. The President would save $6 billion through
elimination of the Perkins Loan program. Additionally, another $3.7 billion would be saved by changing the now refinancing program of borrowers being locked into a 30-year low fixed interest rate to borrowers being charged a variable rate. “Public Interest Research Groups, said the proposal would ‘cost students thousands of dollars in increased interest payments,’” according to The Chronicle. Costs in running the program would save $10.4billion. “Loan industry officials said they supported the president’s plan to increase the maximum Pell Grant but did not believe reducing the amount lenders and
Updated textbooks raise prices, students suffer JILLIAN MILAM JGM726@CABRINI.EDU ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR It’s the dreaded moment that every student, or parent for that matter, awaits semester after semester. The jaw-dropping, eyepopping, mind-boggling price of textbooks. Why are the prices so extreme and where does all of the money go? “The used book market,” Ray Mesing, salesman and field editor for a publishing company called Prentice Hall , said. “For me, this is the main reason as to why the prices of textbooks have increased.” About 10 to 15 years ago, there were no such things as companion web sites or power point slides. Once a companion web site was created, other businesses had to raise the bar as well, eventually shutting other companies down. “The cost of extraneous things
adds to it. Web sites are free, power points are free. You know, we’re not good-natured people and we don’t just give things away,” Mesing said. “All of it costs money and somebody has to pay for it.” Therefore, paper itself became more expensive. Then the used book market phenomenon took over and has affected publishing companies immensely. “We used to do revisions of books every five or six years. Now, we do it every two or three years. Before used books came about, we would lose money for the first two years of the new book cycle, break even on the third year and then make money the last three years,” Mesing said. This cycle was efficient and kept everybody content since publishers could keep the prices down. However, used books altered this five or six year cycle and forced publishers to make their profit during the book’s first
year. “It’s like a car dealership. The salesman sells a car for the first time, brand new. They make money when the car is first off the lot, not on used cars,” Mesing said. “I still have to support it with supplements, like raising the price to offset the different year cycle.” Other supplements might include the infamous CDs that are attached to books, which at times seem to serve merely as worthless price-boosters as opposed to educational tools. “I bought my history textbook and thought that I would need it for class,” Jess Bailey, sophomore education major, said. “But it turned out I didn’t…plus it came with some CD which was just a waste of money because we never had to use it!” Follett Higher Education Group, the country’s largest bookstore retailer that serves as Cabrini’s bookstore distributor,
recognizes the fact that the concept of adding packages such as CDs is aiding to the problem of expensive textbooks. Michele Kennedy, Cabrini’s bookstore manager, explained that if a professor requests a shipment of textbooks that contain any type of package, employees of the bookstore will pick up the phone to call that professor and make sure he or she definitely wants that certain book and if they truly need the CD. “Sometimes the teachers will say ‘no, we don’t need the CD that comes with it,’” Kennedy said. “So we send out a search to our 3 main used book sources to find the books without the CDs.” According to Acumen, a Follett Newsletter For Faculty, a recent study proved that one of
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guarantors could earn was the right way to pay for it,” according to The Chronicle. Bush had “asked lawmakers to raise the amount that students in their first two years of college can borrow from the government’s direct-and guaranteed-studentloan programs.” This money would come from some of the $10.4 billion. The Chronicle said programs that “help motivate and prepare low-income students for college” would also be disposed of. Savings from “the programs would be transferred into a block grant that states could use in a variety of ways ‘to increase the achievement of high-school students,’ according to budget documents.” Upon approval, the Pell Grants would begin functioning in structure more like Medicare or Social Security. Limits would be set as to how long students could receive Pell Grants; however, recipients would be able to use the award year-round. Although being able to use this award year-round, the maximum Pell Grant would only cover “a quarter of the cost of attending a four-year public institution by 2010, 10 percentage points less than it does now.” Additionally, students would only be able to use the award for eight years, or LOANS, page 3
Inside
Perspectives Time to say goodbye Page 12
Features Summeritis settles in Page 9