With the November elections fast approaching, debate over Iraq, terrorism and the economy has in many ways dominated the rhetoric of presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. In the midst of this foreign policy debate, however, less glamorous domestic issues have been pushed to the side — particularly those involving higher education.
Princeton in Cuba
At the University, Princeton in Cuba (PIC) is one program whose future could very well depend upon the results of the approaching presidential elections. A popular student-initiated program founded in 1999, PIC sends undergraduates to Cuba over spring break to conduct fieldwork and research.
This year, however, the program has been suspended indefinitely due to changes in the Department of the Treasury's rules restricting travel to Cuba.
"Essentially, a very popular program has been eliminated, in my opinion, quite arbitrarily," Michael Stone, the executive director of the Program in Latin American Studies, said. "It's hard to understand the fear on the part of the [Bush] administration toward this sort of exchange because if their goal is to open Cuba up, I can't imagine a better set of cultural ambassadors than Princeton students."
The new regulations require undergraduates studying in Cuba to participate in programs longer than 10 weeks. Students are also only allowed to participate in programs sponsored by their own universities.
While PIC only involves University students, it doesn't meet the 10-week requirement and the University does not have the resources to establish a prolonged program in Cuba, Stone said.
The change has also wiped out a number of similar programs at colleges and universities across the country because few universities have the resources or student interest to run a semester-long program without drawing students from other universities, Stone added.
While the Department of the Treasury regulations are not directly linked to the White House, presidents do exercise a degree of influence over them, Stone said.
"There is definitely close coordination between the treasury department and the White House," he said. "I don't know the specific connections between them on this, but the department wouldn't be making rules without the approval of the White House."
Stem Cell Research
Unlike study abroad programs, stem cell research is a policy area which has produced a great deal of debate and controversy.
In August 2001, Bush signed an executive order limiting federal funding to stem cell research on existing stem cell lines.
These existing lines, however, are "completely worthless" for the necessary research, Lee Silver, a University professor with a joint appointment in molecular biology and the Wilson School, said.
While the limit on federal funding has not directly affected any University professors, it does place severe restrictions on researchers at other universities. These professors often have limited private funds and are dependent on funding from the National Institutes of Health, said University President Emeritus and former chairman of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission Harold Shapiro GS '64.
Research on human stem cells is legal in most states, and states like California and New Jersey are attempting to provide state funding that will circumvent federal regulations, Silver said.
California, for example, has put up a $3 million bond offering for approval to fund stem cell research.
"States are really seeing this as a good investment right now," Silver said. "If California gets the bond offering approved, it will attract scientists, venture capitalists and jobs to California. And eventually someone's going to find a cure for a disease and they're going to make a lot of money."
If Kerry is elected next month, he would probably reverse the executive order. However, state action in this area is particularly important since it is unlikely that he would be able to greatly increase federal funding for stem cell research because of senatorial opposition, Silver added.
The debate on stem cell research is controversial, pitting advocates of embryonic rights against those who believe stem cell research could find cures for debilitating diseases like Parkinson's or juvenile diabetes.
Embryonic rights advocates, on the other hand, claim that because the creation of new cell lines comes from the isolation of cells from embryonic or aborted fetal issue, the research is tantamount to a violation of the human right to life.
Many research scientists, however, say that the potential of stem cell research to save lives is very real.
Because stem cells eventually develop into the multitude of different cells that make up the human body, it may be possible to "train" them to develop into certain types of cells that have been destroyed, for example, by a stroke, Shapiro said.
"In the end, the only thing the current U.S. policy can do is slow down, not stop, research in this area because it is booming in other parts of the world like east Asia, particularly Singapore," Silver said. "In time, real therapies will result from the research and so Americans will ultimately support it."
Financial Aid
Bush and Kerry have also proposed a number of new financial aid initiatives, but the real power over financial aid lies with Congress and the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a bill that deals with aid to students and institutes of higher education, Stanley Katz, a professor in the Wilson School, said.
"Higher education is an area where the president can set the tone, priorities and the basic agenda, but it's also an area where Congress has a lot of power with the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and the appropriations cycle," Diane Jones, director of Princeton's Office of Government Affairs in Washington, DC, said.
Pell grants remain a central issue in financial aid, since the maximum grant of $4,050 per year continues to lose its buying power as college tuition rises above the rate of inflation.
In 1973, for example, the average Pell grant covered about 45 percent of tuition at a four-year public university and about 25 percent at a four-year private university. Today, the average Pell grant covers only about 30 percent of public university tuition and 10 percent of private university tuition, Jones said.
In order to regain the grant's buying power, the maximum award would have to be increased to $6,000 or $7,000 a year, she added.
While the reduction in Pell grant buying-power is important for students at colleges and universities that don't guarantee full coverage of demonstrated financial need, it will have little impact on Princeton students, Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Don Betterton said.
Only five to seven percent of University students receive Pell grants and the University makes up the difference between the award value and tuition increases out of its own resources, he said.
Neither Bush nor Kerry has specific plans to raise the maximum award, nor do they have concrete proposals to reduce the nearly $4-billion shortfall in the program's budget, according to a Sept. 17 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Bush, however, has proposed year-round Pell grants that would allow students to take courses during summer semesters as well as during the traditional nine-month school year. He has also proposed the creation of a merit-based add-on that would reward low-income students who have graduated from state scholars programs with an additional $1,000 grant, Jones said.
Kerry, on the other hand, has proposed a $100-million program to reward public colleges and universities that expand the percentage of Pell recipients they graduate, she added. Neither candidate has clarified where they will get funding for these new programs.
Federal funding for student aid is not a major issue for the University since only about three percent of its $60 million scholarship budget comes from federal funds, Betterton said. Loan policy is another area that the University doesn't follow closely because of its own policy of not including loans in its initial financial aid offer to undergraduates.
Bush and Kerry have also proposed a number of new tax policies to help reduce the burden of college costs on families, according to the Sept. 17 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Bush would make a number of his tax cuts permanent, particularly those that eliminate taxes on money withdrawn from state-sponsored prepaid college tuition and savings programs.
Kerry has proposed a tuition tax credit that would refund 100 percent of the first $1,000 of tuition paid and 50 percent of the next $3000. These refunds would be available to families that pay little or no taxes, Jones said.
Yet despite the plethora of proposals, some believe the likelihood that these policies will be implemented after the election is relatively slim.
"There's only a very small chance that these financial aid policies will go through," Katz said. "There are just a lot of other financial constraints on the budget right now."
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