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University’s loan programs hold one of state’s lowest default rates
By Merilynne Cohen
Staff Writer
Student loan programs here have, statewide, one of the lowest percentages of students failing to repay their loans upon graduation.
“The National Direct Student Loan Program here carries only a 27( default rate,” said Jack Wagner, director of Student Accounting Services. "I would estimate that the Federally Insured Student Loan Program also has a very low percentage of default cases.”
Student loans enable many students to meet college costs by borrowing money and agreeing to repay the loan within nine months after graduation.
Wagner attributed the low percentage of default cases to “the quality of students here and the help of our collection team.”
The National Direct Student Loan Program is federally funded and works through the university, which distributes loans and collects repayments. The repaid money is then recycled and used for other loan recipients.
Through the Federally Insured Student Loan program, students may obtain up to S2.500 in loans financed through banks and other loan institutions upon agreement to repay the loan with a low-interest rate after graduation.
Although loan recipients have up to 10 years to
repay, some students don't. This is where the federal government and the university's Student Accounting Services step in.
In default situations, the federal government reimburses the university or lending institution and attempts then are made to locate the student and collect the money.
A House Appropriations Committee law, which became effective Oct. 1, established an additional S15 million in borrowing authority for the reim-bursments of default cases, which has been on the rise nationally. With the additional money, the government has S166 million to cover the S167 million in default claims, said Linda Berkshire, director of Student Aid Programs.
In efforts to obtain repayment of loans. Student Accounting Services has on its staff two full-time professional collectors who oversee a staff of professionally trained tracers.
“Students whom we refer to as skips, persons who move about and don't inform us oftheir whereabouts, are perhaps the most common reason why loan recipients fail to repay the money.” Wagner said. “We then try to trace these people and, if they are found, the situation is usually called a misunderstanding and is worked out.”
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Health center considers resuming 24-hour care
By Mike Schroeder
Staff Writer
Students want it. It would be expensive. Students probably wouldn’t use it very much.
What is “it"? “It” is a 24-hour student health service on campus, adding to the present operation of the Student Health Center.
A discussion of 24-hour-a-day operation at the health center is expected sometime this year by the Student Affairs Committee of the President’s Advisory Council.
The possibility of such a move presents questions of need and cost effectiveness.
“Students said they wanted the health center open 24 hours in a poll taken last year on campus, but when it came to those students saying they had needed it after hours in the past, very few students said they did," said Rita Clayton, assistant director of the center.
Clayton noted that a 24-hour-a-day operation would require a large increase in the staff of the center, requiring more funding.
"We'd need more physicians, lab and X-ray technicians, pharmacists and medical and clerical staff people for an around-the-clock operation,” she said.
In the past, a 24-hour center was used by only a few students and was changed to its present status as a 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekday operation in 1972.
“When Dr. Klotz (Addie Klotz. the center’s director) first arrived, the center was an infirmary on a 24-hour basis, with one or two students using the overnight facilities a week,” Clayton said.
The center, licensed by the California Department of Public Health, felt more comfortable moving to a “health service” operation, according to Clayton.
“The Department of Public Health felt that services readily available should not be duplicated by another service,” she said. “We were doing this because, with Orthopedic Hospital and Hollywood Presbyterian nearby, we had the same overnight care that they could provide.”
Because of the state board s policies and cost savings, the center moved into its present role of serving the student community, Clayton added.
What will the center do to fund a 24-hour expansion of its program? Clayton wasn’t sure, as the main source of funding for the center, the $37-per-semester student health fee. probably won’t be increased.
“Dr. Klotz has said she doesn’t plan to ask for another increase of the student fee," Clayton said.
Daily § Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXII, Number 23 Los Angeles, Californio
Thursday, October 20, 1977
No rise seen in funding requests despite programming fee increase
By Jim Saenz
Staff Writer
Little or no change has occurred in the number of campus organizations seeking financial support from the Campus Activities Allocation Board (CAAB), although the programming fee was increased from $5 to S7 last spring.
“We are not having any more or any less numbers of groups applying for financial funding in comparison to last year.” Larry Pezor, Finance Officer of CAAB, said.
“There are also no different programs coming in. I don’t know if it is our fault for not encouraging more diverse groups at the university to apply and, as a result, we haven’t seen the effects of the increase and probably won’t for some time." Pezor said.
The fee, which is used to finance student-related campus activities, was changed to a tiered fee distribution system among undergraduate and graduate students, said Glenn Sonnenberg, chairman of the Student Affairs Committee of the President’s Advisory Council (PAC).
In a February 1977 report by the Committee on Student Fee Increases to the Student Senate, Sonnenberg said the committee recommended a $7 fee for undergraduate students and a mandatory programming fee increase to $5 per semester.
“The main reason for the tiered system was be-
cause it was felt that graduate students would have a more restrictive schedule academically and it would be ridiculous for them to pay if they weren’t going to use it," Sonnenberg said.
“The senate didn’t act to allow the graduate students more leeway. We will allow them to pay less until we can give them an equal amount to use."
Sonnenberg said the recommendation went through the Student Senate and the Student Affairs Committee of PAC.
“Since we are a university committee, any issues of recommendations for changes must be initiated by the Student Senate, but when we do have changes, then we'll go through the PAC process,” Sonnenberg said.
This year, the only real issue they are faced with is whether graduate and undergraduates should pay the same fee. he added.
"This year there will be a review. As far as possibly raising the fee again. I don't see that happening.” Sonnenberg said. "We may further reconcile the fee differences however.”
Sonnenberg said CAAB receives 757c of the programming fee each semester. “Fifteen percent goes to paying the salaries of the secretary to the Student Senate and the program coordinator."
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Med class dissects problems of ethics
By Gigi Golden
Staff Writer
Medical technology is developing rapidly. Physicans now are able to prolong life through a number of new methods: organ transplants, new drug therapies and machines which sustain vital signs regardless of brain activity.
Medical researchers are forging through the frontiers of genetic manipulation. including research of recombinant DNA as a possible prelude to creating new life forms.
In response to these and other developments in medical technology, the whole field of bioethics has emerged. Bioethics attempts to deal with some of the moral and ethical implications of the increasing ability to manipulate life.
Bioethics is the subject of an undergraduate course, primarily for premed seniors, offered through the combined efforts of the Department of Religion and the School of Medicine.
The course, “Problems in Medical and Biomedical Ethics." attempts to introduce the premedical student to some of the concerns of bioethics today. Students hear seminars by specialists in the areas of medical experimentation on human subjects, procreative decisions such as genetic manipulation and abortion, the physician-patient relationship, principles of ethics, the reality of suffering and dying, rights and priorities in providing medical care and various other topics concerned with the socio-ethical implications ofthe med-
ical profession.
In addition to the seminars, the students have the opportunity to observe and discuss specific medical cases and problems with the medical faculty at County-USC Medical Center
The course was conceived and implemented by J. Wesley Robb, professor of religion, with special emphasis upon values and ethics. Robb is one of the course’s instructors and provides a great deal of the ethical thrust. His coinstructors are all from the medical school: Theodore Kurze. chairman of the department of neurosurgery: Bruce E. Zwacki, head of burn service: and Charles G. Steffen, clinical professor of medicine in the department of dermatology.
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