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Student financial aid group forms to fight federal cuts

After 12,249 students applied for financial aid in 1995, a new campus group has mobilized to take action. Students to Protect Financial Aid, a non-partisan student group, just filed its papers with the Michigan Student Assembly and vows to begin the fight for student rights.

Group chair Mona Hanna, an SNRE sophomore, said the organization formed in response to congressional threats to student loan programs.

"We're trying to reach out to people who either don't know or don't care about financial aid cuts," she said. "Unlike other issues, including welfare, Medicaid, even the environment, cuts in financial aid affect us most directly."

Hanna identified U.S. Rep. Dick Chrysler (R-Brighton) as a major obstacle to student loan seekers. The first-term U.S. representative voted for HR 2491 in October, a bill that dramatically decreased student funding options.

"Congressman Chrysler has consistently followed Newt Gingrich's orders to cut student loans while at the same time handing out tax breaks for people making over $200,000 a year," she said.

Chrysler spokesperson Doug McGinn took issue with the group's stance against the representative's legislative record.

"The tax argument is ridiculous," McGinn said, pointing out that 77 percent of the tax cuts Hanna mentioned go to families making less than $75,000.

McGinn also noted that the student loan package underwent a 50-percent increase, rising from $24 billion to $36 billion.

"In that sense, the numbers can't lie," he said.

Hanna disagreed. "The increase is not proportional with inflation," she said. "It actually underfunds education."

SPFA hopes to encourage participation from students of all political affiliations to vote and vote wisely.

Hanna said the efforts of U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor) should not go unnoticed.

"Lynn Rivers protects our lives and interests," Hanna said. "She's in the minority now. We have to elect people who vote like her."

The University's chapter of SPFA was inspired by Michigan State University's upstart group last year, which was founded by Hanna's brother Mark.

State Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Twp.) said she had seen positive contributions made by SPFA and other groups.

"It's going to take a tremendous movement of college students to direct the attention of congresspeople, particularly Republicans, to maintain the level of spending on education," Smith said.

Smith said student activists have the right idea in their actions. "They can vote. The vote can be very powerful politically. You have to understand how great a weapon it is and use it," she asserted.

With a small core of 10 members, SPFA hopes it can make student voices heard in Michigan and national legislatures through grassroots organization and participation in rallies and letter writing campaigns. A training session is in the works for later this year.