A Penny for Your Thought

Harvard and Radcliffe students, staggered by annual tuition increases, received some welcome dollar signs of relief this week, when R. Jerrold Gibson '51, director of the office of fiscal services, announced that federal aid to students will jump approximately 94 per cent for the 1979-80 school year.

As a result of the 1978 Middle Income Student Assistance Act grants, awarded separately to Harvard and Radcliffe, for the Supplementary Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) and the College Work Study Program (CWSP) will more than double.

Radcliffe students, for too long the victims of unequal work study funding, will welcome the increases all the more. The new funds will bring a more equitable distribution of scholarships and work-study money.

"The Radcliffe program is going to double, bringing the program in line with the enrollment figures," Lawrence E. Maguire, director of student employment, said yesterday.

Maguire said he expected work study will employ about 1000 undergraduate men next year, up from 600 this year, and 550 women, up from 275, squaring the program with Harvard's approximately 2 to 1 male-female ratio.

"It's clear that there will be a lot more work-study jobs than we have this year," Gibson added.

Unlike work-study, Gibson said he expects most of the SEOG increases would go to students already receiving financial aid, rather than new students.

National District Student Loans (NDSL) will fall about 26 per cent at Harvard because Congress slashed the loan program by just over 29 per cent. Gibson said the cut will not limit the number of students who receive funds because Harvard has another program available.

Radcliffe's NDSL loan allotment will rise by 143 per cent despite Congress' decreased funding.

"They hadn't used all the funds from the previous year (1977-78), so they got much less this year than they were entitled to. The government is just making it equal to what they deserve," Gibson said.

Both Maguire and Gibson said they believe enough students will apply to the CWSP to take advantage of the new funds.

But Harvard's financial aid windfall may receive a Congressional "red dot" next year. Gibson said yesterday, "We'll be lucky if we don't get a reduction" in the 1980-81 package.