SEMO OFFICE ENTERS FRAY OVER STUDENT LOAN CUTS

Southeast Missouri State University's financial aid office has entered the political fray over congressional plans to cut the nation's student loan budget.

The financial aid office took out a full page ad Wednesday in The Capaha Arrow, the student newspaper.

The ad warned against cuts to the student loan programs even as a Senate committee in Washington narrowly voted to send a plan to the full Senate that would do just that.

The Senate's Labor and Human Relations Committee approved a plan that, among other things, would levy a loan fee on colleges.

School officials said the fee could cost Southeast more than $200,000 a year.

Southeast has a policy requiring the school remain neutral on partisan politics.

But Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, said the decision to run the ad was a judgment call.

The ad was approved by Dr. SueAnn Strom, vice president of student affairs. Wallhausen said Strom thought the student-aid issue didn't involve partisan politics because there are Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the issue.

Southeast's policy on partisan politics was adopted following a 1988 visit to the school by then-president Ronald Reagan.

The nearly $400 ad includes a red stop sign with the message "Stop the Raid on Student Aid" printed on it in white letters.

It contains a letter to the university community from Karen Walker, financial aid director, and a statement opposing cuts in the loan programs.

It urges readers to call their senators and representatives, or let the Alliance to Save Student Aid send a fax to lawmakers.

The alliance, based in Washington, represents about 40 member organizations in higher education, including the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

"Congress is thinking about cutting federal student-aid programs. And they'll succeed -- unless we stop them together," the ad starts out.

The federal government provides 75 percent of all financial aid for college, the ad said.

"For many, this financial aid made the difference between going and not going to college," the ad said. "Tell Congress you think cutting student aid is shortsighted and wrong."

Walker's letter states that Congress' plan to balance the budget includes cuts in federal student loan programs that would save $10.4 billion over the next seven years.

"We felt this was probably the easiest and most economical way to get information out to the students," said Dennis Schroeder, coordinator of customer service in the financial aid office and one of the architect's of the ad.

More than 3,200 Southeast students received federal financial aid totaling $15 million in the 1994-95 school year.

About $10 million of that total was in student loans, Schroeder said.