Western Front - 1986 April 11

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The Western Front
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VOL. 78, NO. 19 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1986
Financial Aid
700 students will
* lose grants, loans
Gramm-Rudman
makes first cuts
By Keven Graves
staff reporter
Seven hundred fewer Western
students will receive financial aid
in 1986-87, Director of Student
Financial Aid Ron Martinez
said.
"Whether that means 700 less
students (attending)," he said, "I
don't know."
The financial aid cuts are part
of the Hollings-Gramm-
Rudman Act, which went into
effect March 1. The act imposes
4.3 percent across-the-
board reduc- | l | l l l l | l ll
tions, during 1986-
87, in all federal
student aid pro­grams
except Guar­anteed
Student
Loans. Hollings-
Gramm-Rudman is
attempting to reduce
the national deficit
to zero by 1991.
"The next round
of cuts are the drastic ones,"
Martinez said. "In the 1987-88
school year approximately one-third
of the aid will be gone
according to Gramm-Rudman.
News
"It would seem to me these
cuts are going to affect students
drastically," Martinez said.
"Students don't seem to be doing
anything. Next year," he added,
"when students find out they
can't get any money and they
come to us, by then it is too late."
Martinez said students need to
notify their congressmen, state
Martinez said students need to
notify their congressmen, state
legislators and other elected offi­cials,
and tell them they oppose
financial aid reductions before it
is too late.
The attack on financial aid is
not new.
"Each year since Reagan has
taken office," Martinez said, "the
Department of Education, which
is in the executive branch of
government, has failed to accu­rately
estimate the need for
financial aid." This miscalcula­tion,
he said, is off by hundreds
of millions of dollars.
"Reagan," Martinez said, "in
his 1987-88 proposal, wants to
drastically reduce Pell Grants
and diminish National Direct
Student Loans,
Supplemental
Education Op-p
o r t u n i t y
Grants, college
work-study and
State Student
I n c e n t i v e
Grants."
Martinez said
he does not
believe Con­gress
will allow
the extreme cuts Reagan is ask­ing
for fiscal year 1987, "even if
what it means is a tax raise.
"It could be in a couple years,"
Martinez said. However, "we
will be right back where we were
before World War 11—only the
rich come to school or only the
extremely poor who can get
some aid."
Although the financial aid
office will not disappear soon,
Martinez said, "Financial aid in
10 to 15 years will not look like it
does today."
By Carol Flake
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• See TECH, p. 12
AS rep will focus on daycare
By Monica White
staff reporter
TODD ISAKSON
Child care is the biggest priority for the newly
appointed Director At-Large for University Resi­dences
Todd Isakson.
The junior finance major was named to the
Associated Students Board of Directors position
during the board's meeting Wednesday.
Isakson will finish the term of Sheryl Mullen,
who resigned to take a student teaching position in
Bellevue this quarter.
Isakson, who helped keep child care at Skagit
Valley Community College last year while serving
as treasurer for the student government, said child
care has been one of his long-time concerns.
In his new position, Isakson will work as a liason
between the board and the residence hall system
and will be a member of the Inter-Hall Council, the
Housing and Dining Committee, the Faculty and
Service Council and the Day Care Relocation
Committee.
"I'm walking into this with a clear and open
mind," Isakson said. "I plan to listen to all the
inputs and then assess them."
He transferred to Western last fall and served on
the hall council of Ridgeway Omega, where he
resides. He said he believes living on campus will
help him with his job.
Isakson filed for the position of next year's AS
Secretary/Treasurer, another AS board post,
Thursday morning. He will run in the student elec­tions
May 6 and 7.