OPINION
Page 4 -
Saturday, December 5, 1981
The Michigan Daily
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eaa bd ane Michigan
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCII, No. 71
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Reagan cuts in GSL
shortsighted
T APPEARS that the Reagan ad-
ministration is preparing to take
another swing at cutting student finan-
cial aid programs.
Secretary of Education Terrel Bell
said Thursday the federal government
is considering drastic cuts in its
Guaranteed Student Loan program.
The financial aid resources available
to college students from the state and
federal government are already low,
but these new cutbacks will have an
even more devastating effect on the
ability of aid recipients to continue
their educations.
There are 14,000 students at the
University, more than 3 million
students nationwide, who currently
receive GSLs. These loans can total, as
a maximum, $2,500 per person for un-
dergraduates, and $5,000 per person
for graduate students. They comprise
$49 million worth of the University's
tuition and housing payments.
These reductions of government GSL
funds-in addition to this summer's
announcement of new GSL elegibility
restrictions, massive cuts in the Pell
Grant program, and substantially
decreased education-based Social
Security benefits-may force thousan-
ds of university students to abandon
their hopes of graduating.
The creation of the GSL was one of,
the best examples of the federal
government's positive investment in
its country's future, and reductions in
that loan program present us with yet
another manifestation of the Reagan
administration's ignorance of what
constitutes educational equality.
These financial aid cutbacks will not
disastrous
only deter many students from con-
tinuing their education as un-
dergraduates or from advancing to
graduate school, they will also make
students currently attending high
school question the benefits of
shouldering the tremendous monetary
burdens of tuition for the sake of a
degree.
A middle class family that has too
wealthy a financial background for
outright financial aid, but that does not
have the immediate monetary resour-
ces to put more than one child through
college, will be severely restricted
from giving its children college
educations because of these new GSL
reductions.
The GSL program allows students to
take up to six months after graduation
to pay the 9 percent interest owed the
government. There is no other federal
program available for students whose
finances do not qualify them for "need
based" financial aid grants.
The Reagan administration is
making these cuts in the GSL program
in an attempt to balance the federal
budget while increasing military spen-
ding and, in the process, it may erode
the very foundation on which our
educational structure is based.
"But a government cannot abandon
the investment it has in the intellectual
potential of its youth. When
Washington closes the educational
doors on such a large portion of its
nation's population, (there are $2.7
billion worth of GSLs lent out yearly)
then it only makes certain that many of
its most promising minds will go to
waste.
WIN /
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'I look forward to receiving the results of your work here in this conference.'
01
The 'U' after
Pearl Harbor
Forty years ago this week Pearl Harbor
was bombed and the United States en-
tered World War I. Quite suddenly the
choices facing Americans, particularly
young men, were drastically and
Replay
By;
Will McLean Greeley}
dramatically revised. How did students at
the University feel in the aftermath of
Pearl Harbor? The following excerpt
from the December 9, 1941 Daily
describes the feelings of one of the staff
columnists:
It was not a night when anyone did much
studying. You could walk down any street in
town and never miss a word of the news
bulletins. The beer gardens reported only a
normal trade, but people were looking for
other people-to talk about it with. People
didn't want or need beer. Just somebody to
listen, somebody to sit with or walk around
with.
EVERYBODY SAID "Well, we're in it
now," and you couldn't tell whether the tone
of voice meant despair or relief or just
nothing at all. A lot of cigarettes were
smoked, and on the juke boxes the Dorsey
recording of the "Hawaiian War Chant" was
played over and over again. And on this too
you couldn't tell if the people with the nickels
were kidding or serious.
A guy would sit making slightly nervous but
funny remarks about it, chain smoking,
drinking cup after cup of coffee, and suddenly
his face would be scared, and he would grind
the cigarette into the saucer and say "My
God, what's this - ?" Nobody could tell him.
If they tried, he argued. Belief was something
people couldn't find; there was reality, but
they wouldn't believe it.
Some of them would sit around a radio, the
room filled with smoke, not moving or saying
a word while the announcer spoke, then as the
music of dome Sunday evening program
came back on the air, all the boys would jump
up and start walking around, talking. Maybe
there'd be one guy, or two, who would con-
tinue to sit perfectly still, staring down at the
floor.
IN EVERYBODY'S stomach there was that
strange feeling, not exactly fear, but of ex-
citement and anticipation. As the hours went
on, and the reports accumulated, and the
grapevine brought credible impossibilities to
all the groups the stomach feeling became
loud anger, threats, arguments, feverish
gloom. And as more hours went by, all of
these declined into lethargy, as viewless as a
cancer.
Early in the evening I went to a friend's
room. It was the first time I had ever seen a
radio in his room. In his typewriter was half a
page of something he had been writing in the
morning before the first report came through.
He didn't want to come out at first. Finally he
took the radio back where he had borrowed it,
and we went over to get some coffee. He said.
he couldn't seen much use writing.
Somebody else said he had to go home to
study for a bluebook. Everybody laughed, and
wouldn't let him go. Many said they couldn't
see much use in going to classes. Many did not
go. Several of the boys are going in today to
enlist. It's here now.
I say, go to classes. However soon any per-
son must leave here, thinking won't hurt him.
We must think. We must not get punch drunk.
We must make the peace that follows this
war. I mean WE. So long until soon.
* * * * *
NEXT WEEK: Four years in a loft.
Greeley's column appears every Satur-
day.
"YOU HAP A VERY PROFITAaLE YEAR. LET'S SEE -.
AFTER SPECIAL TA BREAKS ARP $U8SIPIES,
WE OWE You.."
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Defense research should be questioned
To the Daily:
We write this letter to both
praise and respond to Barry
Witt's series of articles concer-
ning the Pentagon's ties with the
University (Daily, Nov. 18-20).
First we would like to thank
Witt for exposing the issue of
military research at the Univer-
sity. The questions of this research
are of urgent concern and must
be openly discussed by all parties
the extent of interest with univer-
sity military research. There are
many University and community
groups studying the issue; among
them are the Interfaith Council
for Peace, the Ann Arbor
'Association of Methodist
Ministers, Ann Arbor Science for
the People, University Campus
Ministers, and the Michigan
Student Assembly.
As a group of students concer-
which prides itself on developing
knowledge and education for the
improvement of life. We also
question the stance of the basic
research.
In short, we ask all members of
the University to become aware
of the connections between the
military and the University and
to take a stand on the position of
defense sponsored research. We
urge the stiident hndv tn nn
and morals to the wants of the
Pentagon.
-Jennifer Leehey
Julia Gittleman
Audrey Wolff
Tom Mendelsohn
Henry Rice
Elizabeth Galst
Jamie Moeller
Susan Povich
Members, Committee to
Rarajhn Intelligence
Ad