March 20, 1981 issue 10 Loquitur

Page 1

.I

Friday,March 20, 1981

Cabrini College, Radnor, PA 19087

Vol. ~II,

No. 10

Budget cuts hinder student loans BY ROSEMARY LYNCH

With his recent state of the economy message, it is clear that President Reagan's budget cuts will have a profound impact on the college funding for 84% of the students attending Cabrini. The President is recommending legislation which would result in a severe cut to the Guaranteed Student Loan Program ( GSL) as it now exists. The GSL is a loan given by a bank and paid back to a bank but guaranteed by the government. The loans are not based on need. Any student attending a postsecondary school half-time or more can receive a GSL. An interest rate of 9% has recently been implemented for first time borrowers; if you

have started out with 7% interest loans you are able to stay at that level. President Reagan's proposals consist of interest subsidy for the loan while the student is attending school, increase of the interest rate, the eligibility of the student will become stricter, and the amount of a loan which may be borrowed will decrease. All the new proposals are under review, the impact will not be known immediately but it is clear that changes to the system of guaranteed low interest loans will be made. Arlene Solomon, director of financial aid, thinks that a drastic change in aid so suddenly will be catastrophic. She stated, ''With in-

creasing need and decreasing dollars, students will have to do more on their own to help fund college costs." Cabrini offers a great number of awards and scholarships as an incentive to high achievement and reward for academic and athletic excellence. They are available on a competitive basis with performance judged annually. Beth Ann Lieberman, assistant director of financial aid commented, "Because the legislative process takes time, these a:,vards are being made blindly. That is to say the money may not,be there to back the gifts. We are being put in a position of second guessing the government." No definite decisions have been made yet, but if the present pr~

posals succeed certain things are tions should be strongly voiced. clear. It will be just as hard for Ms. Solomon suggests t_hat stucurrent students to regain aid as it dents sign the petitions that are will be for first time applicants. In going around campus for limited addition, graduate school loans cuts to financial aid. On top of this , will be based on the same requireparents and students should write ments as undergraduate loans. to Congress and state senators Director of Admissions, Mrs. stating how they will be affected Estelle Oristaglio, said the cuts by these proposals. . have not affected applications for Solomon added, "Although we next year, however she stated, • are not sure how drastic the cuts "This is a very serious problem for will be, a change is definite. The all students, old and new. With the new budget will make it.harder for cost of education rising and funds everyone, however, our allegiance decreasing, it is the average mid- is to our present students." dle class families that are going to All students who need a loan for suffer. Unfortunately, that is the the 1981-82 school year are type of family that makes up strongly urged to submit an apCabrini. We must voice our objec- plication now. Student aid pr~ tions strongly." grams may be cut severely but Final decisions will be made they will not be completely soon and experience shows objec- diminished.

·Maryknoll opposes US arms aid BY TAMRA DIMARINO government wants a military solution to a political problem ." · Archbishop Romero, assasiThe Sisters have experienced nated last March in El Salvador, was killed "because he was trying life in third world countries and have seen first hand how the first to tell the people 'Don't kill,' "Sr. and third world countries are Pat Fitzgerald, M.M 0 , recently affecting each other. told Cabrini students. "Death is an everyday reality" "He urged the prohibition of all military assistance to the govern- m countries like El Salvador and ment of El Salvador and the cessa- the Philippines, Fitzgerald said. tion of all U.S. intervention, In El Salvador, "75 percent of suffer from whether direct or indirect," ac- the population cording to The Inter-Religious malnutrition ," according to the Task Force on El Salvador. Sisters, and "most of the wealth is Sr. Kathleen Reiley, M.M., and in the hands of 14 families." Sr . Fitzgerald, Maryknoll mis"90 percent of those employed sioners, recently spoke to journal- earn less than $11)()per year and 60 ism students at a press conference, percent of the land is currently in on issues concerning El Salvador, the hands of two percent of the pe~ the assasination of Archbishop pie, " according to the Sisters. One Romero, and the murders of three reason for the low income in the nuns and a Catholic lay worker third world countries may be the fact that "labor is cheap ." last December . Sr. Fitzgerald has worked in the The Sisters stated that "the rich Phillippines for19 years and on the land brings wealth and riches and island of Yap for 18 years while that the landowners earn about$26 Reiley has worked with orphans in thousand per month. " The reason Japan. that the landowners earn so much Concerning U.S. intervention in is that "most food-bananas , El Salvador, Fitzgerald has stated pineapples, cocoa , and coffee" is that the U.S. government is "not "for export," according to Reiley . listening to the Church . The majority of the population Archbishop Romero tried to tell will not see any of that food, the state department but our therefore resulting in malnutri-

tion, etc. "The poor," could have "no worse life than there is already," Fitzgerald said. " Certainly hunger was not the intent of the agri-businesses,' ' Reiley stated , but it "came about by political means. There was not an intent to cause hunger, but that's what happened." Last December, three Maryknoll nuns and a lay missioner were assasinated in El Salvador. They included Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford , Ursuline Sr. Doroty Kazel and Jay missioner Jean Marie Donovan . Reiley said that" peasants ( in El Salvador) at 10:30 at night heard screams and gunshots. " Later, "One peasant had enough _ courage to tell someone they thought they had buried four American women." " Maura ," Reiley continued, "was stationed in Nicaragua for 17 years" and "lta was stationed in Chile for eight years. " They had "volunteered t.o go to El Salvador." The deaths of these women, and an ABC newsman, "who helped change U.S. foreign policy," according to "The Nation, " " brought home to Washington and

SISTERS Kathleen Reiley and Pat Fitzgerald, both Mary Knoll Sisters, answer questions in a lecture combining the mass media class and the American Religion Class. The two visited Cabrini and other area colleges recently to inform students of the reality of third world plight. the public at large , the murderous savagery of military dictatorship." "The Nation " went on to say that" the tragedy of their deaths is that they had to happen: seemingly only the sacrifice of

American lives focuses U.S. attention on the slaughter of thousands of people in neighboring countries, particularly when those people are poor people and workers with no income of publicizing their plight. ' '

Growing concern for ·El Salvadorian plight BY MAUREEN CARROLL

During a tw~week stay in the Philadelphia area, two Maryknoll sisters are awakening students and teachers to the happenings in third world countries. Pat Fitzgerald and sister Kathleen Reiley spoke at Cabrini and other local colleges and universities. Fitzgerald was stationed in the Phillipines and the island of Yap for nineteen years, and Reiley was stationed in Tokyo for

ten years. The purpose of their talks and slide presentation is to get young people to become more responsive to the needs ot others. · " An education is to allow the whole person to grow," Sister Pat said , explaining that people are not as interested as they should be in foreign affairs . We play an im-. portant role in our own education by reading and reflecting what

goes on in other countries. A first world country is defined as technologicall y developed , such as the United States and Western Europe . A second world country is a planned technologically developed nation such as Russia . A t hird world country is technologically underdeveloped, such as El Salvador and the Phillippines. ' " Persons in the third world are

not apathetic , but just passive toward first world oppression ," Sister Pat said. Sister Kathleen said , " The voices of the people in third world countries are not picked up by the me<iia."' She also feels that the best way to understand countries is through a " people to people sharing. " How receptive Americans will be to third world problems de-

pends on their interests and concerns, sometimes their social strata. Residing on Drexel Road with the Little Sisters of the Assumption , I asked them what the y thought of the responsiveness of the people in the area to third world needs . They commented tha t young people showed a real concern, and Cabrini students were serious about the topic.


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