UA works to reform fin. aid

A new proposal outlines an exemption from the summer earnings expectations. The Undergraduate Assembly released its financial aid proposal last night, outlining a plan that would exempt students from their summer earnings expectations for at least one summer during their years at Penn. The exemption will allow students to pursue educational opportunities -- ranging from public service internships, travel fellowships or study abroad -- without having to worry about their loans, according to the proposal. "[This proposal is] absolutely a cornerstone for our agenda this year," UA Chairman and College senior Mike Silver said. "This would be a huge boost for students if it's passed." The proposal was created by UA member and Wharton and Engineering sophomore Mike Krouse, who has been working on the issue since last June. Krouse said he started re-evaluating financial aid issues and noticed that many students may feel hindered by the estimated $3,000 summer earnings contribution which is calculated into the average financial aid package. "[I realized] that there were a lot of students who had to take jobs for the money," he said after the meeting, adding that this made it difficult for students to pursue opportunities that would help them decide what they wanted to do in the future. Krouse conducted an e-mail survey in November asking 500 students about the issue. Of the 104 that accurately completed the survey, Krouse found that 76 percent of the financial aid recipients wanted to take an unpaid or public service internship -- while only 27 percent actual have done so -- and that 83 percent of financial aid recipients would be more likely to take such an internship if their summer earnings expectations were reduced or waived. The proposed waiver plan would cost between $200,000 and $400,000, depending on how many students would participate, according to the plan. The UA will present its proposal to Provost Robert Barchi tomorrow. Krouse also researched other schools' policies on reducing students' debt after graduation, and he found that schools like Yale University have implemented similar programs. Since the summer of 1999, Yale has been exempting its students from summer earnings expectations for one year of their Yale career. If the proposal is approved, students will be able to receive an exemption by applying in the spring by submitting a one-page proposal describing their internship or program. A committee will then have the option of pre-approving the proposals on a rolling basis, allowing the University to control the numbers of students that receive exemptions each year. The proposal emphasizes that students should be allowed to find their own internships, rather than the University providing them with a list of static ones eligible for exemption. The cost of the program has been an issue of concern for University officials, but Krouse said he feels that the project is worthwhile and will benefit both the students and enhance the educational goals of the University. "It helps [both] the students and the University," Krouse said. "If more students can do these jobs, [there will be] an increase in the University's prestige." The UA plans to work with Barchi, the Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid and the University Council Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid to try and implement this program -- beginning as soon as this summer, according to Krouse. Besides the one-time exemption from summer earnings, the UA also recommended that students be allowed to use outside scholarships to pay for their self-help portions of their packages. Currently, such scholarships reduce the amount of aid that students receive from the University, discouraging students from applying for them. This part of the proposal, however, according to Silver and Krouse, will not be emphasized as much as the first.