Students lobby U.S. senate for aid

Student leaders from more than 20 colleges and universities — including a student from Princeton — met with staffers at the U.S. Senate Tuesday to discuss the proposed National Tuition Endowment Act (NTE), which promises to return money from the federal financial aid system to students.

The Act targets "billions of dollars in waste" from at least seven sources, including "$10 billion [that] is wasted on the fixed-interest rates on educational bonds" and "$3 billion in subsidies [that] is given to Fortune 500 companies under the Federal 'guaranteed' loan program," according to the NTE student movement's press release.

Once recovered, these funds would be given to "low-income and middle-income undergraduates in their last two years," according to the latest draft of the proposal. If the Act is passed, students who demonstrate financial need and a minimum GPA of 3.0 would be eligible for grants.

The briefing aimed to push senators to cosponsor the bill and introduce it for debate. Legislative aides and interns for 10 senators, including Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), attended the briefing. The students will soon lobby the House of Representatives as well.

Princeton's representative in the NTE movement, USG vice president Rob Biederman '08, worked on drafting the act in October. He worked on the financial parts of the bill, noting that it "is fairly complicated economically," but stressed that there is widespread support for the principles behind the bill and that people in Washington "seemed very willing" to talk about the issue.

If passed, the NTE Act will not affect Princeton undergraduates directly, since the University meets 100 percent of every student's demonstrated need without resorting to loans.

But the act is still relevant for Princeton undergraduates planning to go on to graduate school. "If this bill were passed tomorrow, it won't change our lives at all," he said. "But the effect it does have is for Princeton students going on to grad school, and for the nation's service. It benefits others' ability to go to college and be debt-free after graduation. It affects our children if they are not fortunate enough to go to Princeton for college."

NTE movement director Nathan Walker, a doctoral student at Columbia's Teachers' College, said reaction from the legislative aides was overwhelmingly positive. "People have said positive things unexpectedly," he said. "A lot of Republicans said, 'This is the kind of efficiency bill we've been looking for,' and others have said, 'It's great to see such broad constituency in the co-authorship.' People are latching on to the fact that this is a nonpartisan issue. It's just about the facts of the inefficiencies."

"Anytime you get community colleges and the graduate students association and Princeton in support of a single cause, it's probably legitimate," Biederman said. Coauthors of the Act include students from colleges and universities around the country, as well as the American Student Association of Community Colleges and the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students.

"We're unified on one issue, and that's the most stunning thing," Walker said.

Walker came up with the idea in June 2004, and plans began to form at an Ivy Council conference that fall. "I called up the Department of Education to ask about what happens to the interest from student loans, and they said, 'We don't know.' Then I asked, 'Well, what happens to the $1 billion that you make from loan consolidations?' They said, 'It goes back to the treasury.' "

"That's a lot of money that could go to students," Walker added.