A WINTER PANORAMA—Snow caps the crests of the San Bernardino Mountains during a pause in the thunderstorms that overtook Southern California last week. The Von KleinSmid Tower and Waite Phillips Hall stand as reminders of the nearing finals students face. Some students, however, are looking past finals toward that break between semesters. They plan to
take in a little skiing. Others simply await the opportunity to relax without the threats of papers to be written or finals to be taken — threats that pursued them during the Christmas break. DT photo by Denis Wolcott.
BY PETER FLETCHER
Assistant City Editor
The prognosis for the Federally Insured Student Loan Program is not much better now than it was last spring when many banks were limiting or discontinuing the program in spite of corrective legislation passed by Congress.
Bank of America, one of the few banks that still grants new student loans in California, will probably continue its program, said Lu Steiner, an assistant cashier at the bank.
She said the bank has not yet made a decision about raising the limits on the loans. She said she would recommend raising the limits, but the final decision rests with the bank’s executives.
The bank reduced the limit for new loans to $4,500 for undergraduates and $7,500 for graduate students last spring. Undergraduates and graduates who started in the program before last spring can receive up to $7,500 and $15,000, respectively.
The new escrow plan that would put loan funds into escrow before the student receives them would have little effect on students at USC, Steiner said. The U.S. Office of Education plans to implement the plan as a pilot program this fall.
Two new bills passed by Congress, however, may have effect on the program.
The bills will raise the special allowance, an amount the federal government pays beyond the student’s 7% interest charge, to between 3% and 5% from the current 1% to 3%. But even with this increase, the interest rate is still much lower than interest rates on regular bank loans.
While the student is in school, the government pays the interest on his loan. The student has 10 years from the time he receives his first loan to repay all loans, and following graduation the student must assume all additional costs of his loans.
The program is being ruined, however, by the 18% of the nation’s students with loans who are not repaying them, Steiner said.
Because of the low interest rates on the loans and the number of defaults, the loans lost money for the banks, she said. She would not comment on how much the Bank of America loses every year on the loans.
In addition, the bank has dropped nonsubsidized student loans. Because many students have not been paying the interest, the bank decided to award no new loans of this type. Only those students who have received nonsubsidized loans in the past will receive them in the next few years.
University of Southern California
Volume LXX, Number 60
Los Angeles, California
Monday, January 10, 1977
Attempt to cut proposed tuition hike unsuccessful
BY CLARA GERMANI
Staff Writ«r
A Faculty and Student Compromise Budget, which would call for a smaller increase in tuition and a higher wage boost for the faculty, was rejected Thursday by the Resource Management and Planning Committee. The proposed tuition increase for next year remains at 8.47%.
After drafting a preliminary budget, the committee heard positions from teaching assistants (TAs), librarians, faculty and students for budget reconsiderations, said William Dauster, a student representative on the committee.
But he said there were no changes in the preliminary budget. “It’s almost as if the presentations were a farce. They (the committee) didn’t seem to want to take the positions into account. The way we look at it, this is the same, if not worse than the original budget.”
The budget, which must be approved Friday by the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) in order to get the Board of Trustees’ final okay, probably will not be approved, Dauster said.
“It’s almost unprecedented to have two caucuses with differing interests agree on a compromise,” Dauster said about the faculty-student agreement. Because the Faculty and Student Senates compose approximately three-fourths of the PAC, Dauster
said the proposed budget may not be approved.
Under the proposed budget, tuition would take an 8.47% increase, and all faculty, staff and TAs would each receive a 7% wage hike. These increases were based on administration enrollment estimates that Student Senate members had called extremely conservative. By underestimating enrollment, surplus funds are accrued from unbudgeted tuition payments.
Enrollment for the 1977-78 academic year is expected by administrators to increase 4.2% as reflected in the estimates of the proposed budget.
But on Thursday, William Wagner, special assistant to the president for academic record services, suggested 3.7% as a more realistic enrollment projection. Wagner’s more conservative estimate was adopted by the committee.
William D. Loadvine, director of Development, Business and Industrial Programs for university affairs and a member of the committee, said, enrollment estimates are not conservative — “From my standpoint it’s almost impossible to have an accurate figure of enrollment.”
He said he believes the pool of available high school students will begin to decline and reports from the several colleges indicate facilities are not large enough to accommodate increased numbers
(continued on page 10)
Swine flu boosters cancelled
BY STEPHEN SASS
Stuff Writer
Students who were vaccinated against the swine flu last month will be spared a little pain today due to a nationwide moratorium on the immunization program.
The students, between the ages of 18 and 24. were to return to the Student Health Center today for booster shots. The shots, however, will not be given, said Addie Klotz, the center’s director, since the County of Los Angeles Health Services Department has discontinued the program until further notice.
Had the program been in operation, the students would have received the boosters to increase the level of swine flu antibodies in their bloodstreams.
Klotz said the immunized students have more protection against the flu than those who
were not immunized and that those in the 18-to-24 age group would have been given the additional serum “just to be on the safe side.
“The age boundaries are difficult ones to set. Every person’s body builds antibodies at a different rate. The epidemiologists assumed that those between 18 and 24, the college-age population, would be less likely to have any swine flu antibodies built up in their system. So, the booster program was devised,” she said.
Joanne Borg Cohen, acting health immunization program coordinator of the county’s Health Department, said it is not known when the moratorium will be lifted. The county has large supplies of the vaccine, which will be stored until the program resumes.
Although the USC program
was cancelled after only four days of operation, Ryu Kanemoto, an outreach nurse at the Student Health Center, said it was successful. Almost 1,200 members of the campus community were immunized, she said, and less than 10 reported any side-effects, such as headaches or muscle soreness.
Klotz said all mass vaccination programs are “fraught with problems. We have no way of knowing for sure what the effects will be. The top experts felt that it was far better to go ahead than run the risks of anepidemic as severe as the one in 1916-17.”
Such an epidemic, should it occur today, would mean the deaths of about 600 USC students if the vaccine was not available, Klotz said.
“The program is being closely (continued on page 11)
Fate of student loan program still in limbo
Daily
Trojan
THIS WONT HURT A BIT—Swine flu booster shots were supposed to be given today to students who received the original shots in December. But the boosters were postponed, sparing students from a little pain. DT photo by Denis Wolcott.
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