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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 1979)
n Wednesday, august 22, 1979 lincoln, nebraska vol. 103 no. 1 u r (o(o Government mix-up delays student financial aid reports By Mary Kempkes v . More than 164,000 financially inde pendent students nationwide, including 550 at UNL, are still awaiting their Student Eligibility Reports because of a mix-up in the technical wording used in 8 student assistance bill passed last fall, according to a spokesman for the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The eligibility reports are used to deter mine financial aid awards, including Basic Educational Opportunity Grants. The reports were mailed Aug. 16, according to Bill Moran, chief of policy and-program development with HEW Basic Grants in Washington, D.C. THE MIDDLE Income Student Assist ance Act broadened wage guidelines for the parents Of dependent students and liber alized the treatment of assets for indepen dents. Both increased overall aid and gave assistance to some students who otherwise received nothing. The SERs were sent out following Prei dent Carter's Aug. 13 signing of the bill which cleared up the original language, Moran said. The SERs were completed in June and July, Moran explained, but the BEOG center in Iowa City, Iowa, could not mail them to waiting students because they weren't technically legal until the 13th. Meanwhile, campus financial aid offices were awaiting the revised reports, and UNL was no exception. Of the nearly 550 UNL students affected, 250 are receiving aid which they would not have received be fore, and 300 independents are getting their aid increased. The late reports will be no major prob lem for the UNL financial aid office accord' ing to assistant director Debra Knight. "THERE'S NO confusion in our office she said. "The student is the one confused. The only real hassle we've had is students calling two or three times to ask where the reports are." Knight said she did not want students to feel uptight. She said tuition refunds will be delayed, but the financial aids office has asked the housing administration and others to be patient until the students re ceive their money. We're very pleased about it," Knight said referring to the act. "It frees up more money for other people." At the national office in Washington, Moran said there have been few complaints. ASUN may consider speaker funding method By Gordon Johnson Student fee financing of the speakers, program could be before the ASUN Seriate at the Augusti m'eetiriiraccording to Bud CucatASUH presidents Cuca said lie contacted legal cdunsel to discuss iher 1 gal " implications of action takenrlasl year "by thev NtiartfM : Regents which prohibited use of student fees for- political or ideological speakers. The regents- ruling does not prevent ideological speakers from appearing ori "' I . Daily Nebraskai) Photo Jane Fonda ;5 campus, but prohibits using student fees to pay them. Cl)CA SAID there have been some ques tions about the constitutionality of the regents' ruling. Robert Lange, student legal services attorney, said he agrees. Lange is not the attorney Cuca has contacted. Cuca said he could-not name 7 the attorney he talked to. According lo. Lance, the rulins could be in conflict with the hirst Amendment be cause it may impose prior restraint on who may or may not speak. Prior restraint, Lange said, is the censor ing of a speaker before he has spoken. Prior restraint may be used only if clear and present danger, such as inciting a riot or causing physical damage or bodily harm can be shown to be a result of someone speaking, Lange said. LANGE SAID the regents clearly have the right to finance or deny dollars to the speakers program, but that once they have committed dollars to the program any process to censor speakers on an individual basis could be in violation of the First Amendment. The regents' ruling states that in case of . a dispute, the chancellors shall have the final authority to approve a-speaker. "It would seem to me it would be best to have a process to question him (the chancellor)," Lange said. CUCA SAID, bringing ideological speakers to campus is part of the tptal edu cation of a student. "I don't feel we get enough variety and numbers to get a wide range of ideas to ful fill the obligations of the university," he said. "We want to make sure that student fees are giving us something educational." Even if the regents' ruling is in violation of the First Amendment, Cuca said he is not sure whether the students will bring the issue before the regents. THE POSSIBILITY exists that by push ing for more freedom the regents could be come angered enough to stop all financing, Cuca said. Before action is taken, Cuca said it must be determined that the University Pro gfahiS Council which, sponsors the'Spcfakf r ' program; wants i change iii policy that the situation is serious enough to warrant a new policy and whether the students want to pay for a speakers program out of man datory fees. Cuca said he would also like to find out how the ASUN senate feels about manda tory funding of a speakers program be fore any action is taken. IF THE STUDENTS and UPC say they want a charge, Cuca said they "will go through every political and legislative chan nel possible," to convince the regents a change is needed. Cuca said he would also like to get the support of the University of Nebraska Med ical Center and UNO, but said he would not allow a lack of their support to hamper action. Pam Fritz, president of UPC, said UPC has kept current on the issue, but has not considered taking action to change the pro gram. - "We are making do with what we have," she said. IF THE ASUN determines the students want mandatory funding of all speakers, Fritz said UPC can consider putting the issue to a vote. Continued on Page 12 Letter prompio call for Regent's resignation A letter sent to six state senators by ScottsbluiT Regent Robert Simmons, criti cizing NU President Ronald Roskens and his budget proposal, prompted Omaha Regent Kermit Hansen to call for Simmons resign ation earlier this rriontlj. The letter was sent by Simmons to the. senators In his district following the: July regents meetings at ; which - Roskens "re commended I 19.6 "percent increase in the amount of state tax money, requested by NUforlhe l9S0-8I fiscal year. : The board, instead - of accepting Roskens proposal, decided to request an increase not to exceed 1 5 percent. ; The Dcdly Nebr&kanm obtained copy of the letter Simmons tent to the lenatort. Hansen called ton Simmons resignation ' because the letter attacks Roskenslnd because Hansen said Simmons should be committed to getting funds the university needs. ,v BOTH SIMMONS and Hansen refused to comment on the contents of the letfet. In the letter, Simmons said that since1 Rosjcens addressed the board on budget needs in December "his attitude has been J: downhill., Simmons said that although. Roskens indicated ' that reducing the - number of university employees would be necessary, "we had more employees than ever at the end of our fiscal year. '! Simmons wrote that rather than complying with the public desire and public interest enacted by LB2S5,.uhich places a lid on tperidirg of governmental , subdivisions, Rcckcns requested more than -the 7 percent limit. ... f; "Because you wilT correct us, in a way, -v no harm will be done by the regents in making our fantasy (budget) request to you, Simmons wrote to the senators, l SIMMONS CHARGED that by request ing the nearly 20 percent increase, Roskens has damaged gains and constructive pro grams to reduce "the University budget. . : MI can only guest to why Dr. Roskens changed his mind-and tactics, Simmons Vrote. !He had rearranged his staff and schedule so that he "Will be doing less -tanning of the university and more speak ; ing throughout the state- speaking on the state's time and at the state's expense, lobbying for more money from the state, r-: We wD now have the. highest paid and most eloquent full-time lobbyist Li our . history. ..'-.-, Conthoed oa pa;e 8 "We're getting more questions than complaints I" he said. "But most of our dealings here are with financial aid officers and'they understand the problems only too well," he said. IT HELPED, Moran said, that only in dependents were involved in the holdup. Independent students are those that fall to meet any of the nine criteria stipulated by HEW, including; having lived with parents during the previous year, having received $750 worth of aid from parents and if parents claimed the student on their in come tax for the previous year. Explanations for the tie-up are compli cated, but essentially it was a disagreement between Congressional committees over legal wording in the two independent pro visions, according to Steve Carter, a pro gram analyst for HEW. The Middle Income Student Assistance Act submitted last fall originally had three provisions. The first concerned dependent students and the other two concerned in dependents. According to Carter, the bill went into committee and two versions emerged, one with the two independent clauses, one without. . After debate about which version would be accepted, the two were merged ence again but the wording was such that the legality of the independent provisions was in doubt. Because arguments about the budget expansions and wording, HEW officials decided in March not to Use the clauses concerning independents, Carter said rl; HOWEVER, THIS move caused grumbl es from Congress. Following a special on April 16 by then HEW Secretary Joseph Califano to agency officials and members of Congress, a technical authorization bill was drawn up. It was submitted to Con gress on May 9, and signed by the President on Aug. 13. "By this time (May 9), more than 347,000 independent forms had already been processed," Moran said. "Now we had to recompute the forms of 164,000 stu dents who would be affected by the bill, either by having their aid increased or re ceiving aid when they got none before," he said. Moran said the agency immediately began refiguring the forms because it knew the bill would be passed. The technical law did several things, Moran said. It solved the budgetary prob lems by stipulating tnat leftover money from 1978-79 be used. It also changed the way in which eligibility indexes are com puted for independents concerning assets. More than 70,000 independents are now eligible for aid who would have received none before. Moran said the two clauses in volving independent students increased existing awards $612,000 and created new awards amounting to $131 million. Together, the three provisions have in creased the nationwide BEOG budget to $2,514 billion for the 1979-80 school year. This is up from the $1.6 billion budget used in 1978-79. The average award per student is now $931, up from $847 in 1978-79. o a Where Is the Nebra&a Union: Sophomore looks back on first-year foUiet. psst 10 '$26.40 .times IS credit hours eqtds:; lie- , gents approve budget proposal that' in--. dudet tuition increase . . ps-s 17 And It's Native. Dsacer la 1 the kid.-DaHy, . Nebraskan reporter and photcptphert spend- 1" day ' at the track