OPINION Page 4 - Saturday, December 5, 1981 The Michigan Daily " 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 'N 'N N N.j' N> N, ~ N 410M, 'N,,-" 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 / 0 '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.." 0r1n t (P&A Weasel YOULTHINKOF llE Ls TURE , WEA SEL? WA SNt IT GREAT? By Robert Lence IT - BOT .4ERS M E , FRED, IT REALLY RCS. WERE ASANPO'F? W~R4TWouL.1'WE NAVwE ? 6 na. !al -- ;-- .. , . 't W 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