Daily w Troian
University of Southern California
Volume LXVIII, Number 79
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, February 21976
Bank of America may change student loan criteria next semester
By Dorothy Reinhold
Assistant City Editor
The Bank of America will continue to participate in the Federally Insured Student Loan Program, despite its objections to the way the government administers the program, but will change its policy qualifying students for the loans, an officer at the bank said.
The bank will be the only one in the area of the university that will continue to award the loans.
A similar announcement by Security Pacific Bank stating its intention to cut back its participation and ultimately withdraw completely from the FISL program caused an uproar among a segment of the student population last week.
Matt St. George, a student relations officer for the Bank of America, said he anticipated the bank to announce a 20^ cutback in the volume of loans given next year. But the proposal is not final yet, and must first be considered by the bank's Social Policy Committee in San Francisco. St. George said the actual announcement will probably be made in early March.
“We are definitely staying with the student loan program, but changes will be made in the qualification policy—who can
get loans, the amount of loan you can get, and the total amount of money you can owe over a course of four years," he said.
The Bank of America handles 6(Fr of the statewide FISL market and with Security's pullout it may handle close to 80^. St. George said.
The University Village branch of Bank of America handles nearly 6500 FISL’s currently, or more than $8 million in outstanding loans, he said.
St. George said. “We are not limiting the number of loans given out, we are limiting the amount given out, which means you can’t go as far into debt as you could before.
“Some people will be eliminated from the program through attrition or because they can't show need, but we will still give loans to people who show need.” he said.
A student must show his financial need by filling out a form supplemental to the university forms for the loan.
“The real problem is that the banks are unsure as to the federal backing of the FISL program. not because students are necessarily defaulting on their loan payments.” St. George said.
Michael Scarpelli, director of
(continued on poge 2)
Funds allocated to cover basic grant program deficit
A transfer of $180 million has been approved to keep the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program operating at its current level through June 30.
The money was taken from the 1977 fiscal year budget, which begins on July 1, to cover a deficit in the 1976 funding that occured when more people than expected applied for the program.
The transfer was approved last week by the education subcommittees of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees.
A supplemental budget request has been submitted to Congress by the administration to replace the $180 million in the 1977 budget.
A staff member for the House Appropriations Committee said the transfer option was taken because it required only approval of the subcommittees, while a supplemental budget request requires approval by both houses of Congress and must be signed by the President.
ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR—Once again tricks with the camera play tricks on the eye. Somewhere between one and six members of the Bicycle Racing Club enjoyed the unusually warm winter weather and practiced on the
mall at the north end of campus. The Santa Ana winds visited Southern California this weekend, but the occasional drizzles may cause the rest of the week to be dampened.
$1,500 budget cut may force Troy Camp to alter programs
Troy Camp may be forced to cut back the number of campers for its summer camp this year and eliminate one program, primitive camp, due to a $1,500 cut in its allocation, said Mary Brink, director of Troy Camp.
In a unanimous decision, the Campus Activities Allocations Board voted Thursday night to allocate $3,500 instead of $5,000 to Troy Camp. This was the first cut in Troy Camp's budget in five years.
A question of support Mike Peterson, chairman of the board, said the reasons for the cutback were a smaller budget to work with this year and the board's feelings that the university should support Troy Camp because it is of substantial public relations benefit to the university.
The administration has stated that Troy Camp is a student organization and should receive its money from the allocations board.
Cutback on campers “Every year we have been ask-
ing for and receiving $5,000.” Brink said. “Even though we have stayed the same, we have cut the number of campers by bQT( in the last five years."
Brink said that Troy Camp was an important program at the university because of the 45 to 60 student volunteers who represent the university.
. . .And on volunteers “With this cut in our budget we will have to cut the amount of student help because there will be fewer campers, campers who were turned away because we didn't have the money.” she said.
Brink said that if Troy Camp doesn't receive more money it will have to go to the community and ask for contributions.
An end to rebuilding “We were really starting to rebuild this year.” Brink said. “We were really getting off the ground. But with this budget cut. it is going to really hurt us. This is the first cut in five years. What are we going to get in the future, more cuts?
“What really got me mad was
the CAAB looked at the other programs in the Community Action Coordinating Committee. When they itemized their requests. they could find where they could cut. In ours they couldn't find anything to cut but did anyway.”
Tough to handle This year the board had a budget of$108.000. Peterson said it was tough to handle the $300,000 to $400,000 worth of budget requests this year. He said the board had to look at every program thoroughly, including Troy Camp, to make certain cuts.
Two years ago, the board had a budget of about $250,000 to work with, most of it surplus from earlier years.
Review sought The $4.50 programming fee is the source for the board's budget. Last year the fee was collected on a voluntary basis and many programs were cut.
Brink said she will take the matter to the review board to appeal the board's decision.
POOR ATTENDANCE CITED
Four Student Senate members ousted
Four members of the Student Senate were removed from their positions Friday because of their failure to attend senate meetings.
All four students had missed nine or more consecutive meetings.
The senate also voted to revise its bylaws concerning campus activities and tabled a proposal to loan $4,000 to KSCR. the student-run radio station, at the meeting.
Dave Blackmar, chairman ofthe senate, said the action of removing the four senators was spontaneous.
“It is stated in the bylaws that attendance must be reported after a member has missed three or more meetings in a row. The persons are then considered by the senate as to if they should continue. At this meeting, the senate took action.”
The senate ended the terms of Ted Winter of the School of Business, Albert
Moss of the Dental School, Celeste Martin of the Graduate School and Ronald Brooks of the School of Social Work.
Of the four, only Brooks said he would appeal the decision.
“The meetings times were just bad for me last semester. I made it to the President’s Advisory Council meetings, but I could not attend the senate meetings,” Brooks said.
Martin expressed the same sentiments, but said she would not appeal the decision. Winter and Moss were not available for comment.
Blackmarsaid it mighthave been unfair to oust the four members before informing them of the possible action, but that the senators at the meeting thought those members were unfair to both the senate and their constituencies by missing so many meetings in a row.
“We are not saying these people are
bad, but if they cannot attend the meetings they should not be serving as senators. We need people who will represent their constituency or that constituency goes unrepresented.” Blackmar said.
In the same action, the senate voted to act on the removal of two more senators. Gayle Sells of the School of Continuing Education and John Garry ofthe School of Medicine, at the next meeting scheduled for Friday.
Blackmar said the senate will also inform other members who have missed more than three consecutive meetings of the possible action that may be taken to insure constituency representation.
He said special elections would be arranged as soon as possible to fill the vacant seats.
In other business, the senate voted to accept a revision in the bylaws to elimi-
nate the implication that the campus activities bylaws would have to be rewritten
every year.
The revision also provides for a group to examine bylaw revision proposals before they go to the senate.
The senate then tabled two proposals, one for a loan to KSCR and the other on revision ofthe bylaws of the Campus Activities and Allocations Board.
The KSCR proposal was delayed until more facts about the station could be known.
Specifically, the senate wanted information on the station's budget, evidence of the station’s range, a projection of advertising capital committed to the station, details on the type of equipment to be purchased, and a report from other universities on problems of running similar operations.