UA presents fin. aid proposal to Barchi

The provost said that the administration will cafefully review the plan. Members of the Undergraduate Assembly met yesterday with Provost Robert Barchi to discuss their recently released financial aid proposal -- which seeks to exempt students from one year of their summer earnings expectations. Barchi and the 10 UA members at the meeting discussed the proposal, created by UA member and Wharton and Engineering sophomore Mike Krouse. In a prepared statement, Barchi said he plans to review the proposal and will meet again with the UA to specifically discuss the summer earnings element of the plan. Barchi said the UA identified issues that have concerned the administration. He added that the administration will make a decision on the proposal shortly, but did not give a specific time for approving the plan. "The proposal creatively suggests how we might structure our financial aid so that we don't deprive students of these [summer internships and work opportunities]," Barchi said in his statement. Bill Schilling, director of Student Financial Aid, said that while the proposal would be a good way to encourage students in pursuing career and academic related jobs, the funding would still have to be addressed. "[The program] could cost as much as $500,000 to $600,000 a year," Schilling said. According to the proposal, the cost will be contingent on how many people choose to participate in the program. The proposal also states that the number of participants would be restricted and there would be an application process. Schilling added that it was still too early to determine where funding for the program would come from if the proposal was passed. According to the survey Krouse conducted to supplement the proposal, 83 percent of financial aid recipients would be more likely to take an unpaid or public service internship if their summer earnings expectation was reduced or waived. Yale University adapted a program very similar to the one the UA is proposing a few years ago. According to Donald Routh, university director of financial aid at Yale, their program began in the summer of 1998 and has benefited its participants by allowing them to pursue community service and summer study abroad. "We feel it's an appropriate extension to the education program," Routh said. The Yale program differs from Penn's proposal in that it does not initiate a cap on the number of students that can participate each summer. In 1998, for instance, 70 students participated in the program and 250 students participated in 1999. The program cost Yale approximately $500,000 last summer. According to Routh, they are expecting to spend about half a million dollars on the program this year. To meet the financial demand of the program, Routh said that the Office of Financial Aid is hoping to find donors. Like the UA's proposal, the idea for the program at Yale was student initiated when the university decided to revamp financial aid policies two years ago.