Student Jobs

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Contrary to the article in The Crimson of December 15th, hundreds of students will not be forced to quit their jobs within a few weeks. The situation this year is no different from other years.

Your reporter has bunched a variety of different financial aid issues together but I think his main focus in on earnings ceilings. Students receiving financial aid have a calculated of job plus loan (self-help) and grant. Federal regulations prohibit students from receiving financial aid funds in excess of their need.

Each student has an earnings ceiling which is established by subtracting what the student borrows from his self-help; the difference is the amount the student needs to earn. If a student feels that he needs to work and borrow for more than his self-help he must talk with his financial aid officer in order to establish the reason for the additional need.

When a student cannot establish his need for additional funds he may decide to cancel or pay back a portion of his loan or he may decide to stop working. But each case in an individual one. Students will not automatically exceed their earnings ceiling by working second semester. No students have been notified so far that they are approaching their earnings ceiling.

Your reporter is quite confused about the loan programs. There are different regulations governing the National Direct Student Loan program. All loans and earnings may be used to pay educational expenses (including tuition). Guaranteed Student Loans may also be used to replace parental contributions while National Direct Student Loans may not.

Financial Aid is so important to so many students and so complicated that The Crimson should seriously consider the idea of assigning one reporter to this beat so that he/she could become thoroughly familir with the various issues and programs. Martha C. Lyman   Director of Financial Aid