Direct Student Loans Draw Fire

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has serious reservations about the Clinton Administration's national volunteer service and direct student loan programs.
In the keynote speech at the annual Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) national assembly in Washington, D.C., William
"Instead of concentrating resources on motivating young people to serve and providing more opportunities before, during and after college for people of all ages," said Gray, "H.R. 2010 provides costly subsidies to select individuals engaged in full-time national or community service.
"In our view," Gray continued, "H.R. 2010 needlessly limits opportunities for service while expending extraordinary costs per volunteer--150,000 slots over about a four- or five-year period at a cost of $7.4 billion. Under the existing Pell grant program, you could provide 5 million more people opportunities for higher education."
Gray told the assembly, "We don't need to provide my child or Jay Rockefeller's child subsidized public service to pay off his school debt. What we'd better be doing is investing the limited dollars we have where they will do the most good, and that means giving it to people based on need. The proposed program provides economic assistance precisely where we don't need it."
Gray also criticized the direct lending concept that has been proposed to fund the national service program, noting that having the loan program administered on college campuses rather than through outside lending institutions would present a hardship for small- to medium-size colleges.
"The United Negro College Fund presidents have been on record for the last three years in opposition to direct lending as it's constituted because we're not sure that the Department of Education, even under its capable new leadership, would be able to effectively administer a program such as this," he said.
* In a session entitled, "Building Community Ties After a Natural Disaster," Daniel Kalmanson, director of media relations, Florida Atlantic University, urged fund raisers to follow five steps in dealing with a natural disaster: 1. Review and update your crisis plan on an annual basis. 2. Update your emergency contact list. 3. Make sure you have a battery-operated computer and a cellular phone for use in an emergency. 4. Be flexible. 5. Don't forget the human element.