Money Is The Object

Twice each year, after the deluge of term bills, a handful of bankrupt undergraduates scurry over to University and Lehman Halls for loans to meet their expenses. For non-veterans these University loans present the best possible solution to financial problems. But for the veteran, waiting patiently for a wayward government check, the current lending arrangement imposes an unnecessary burden on his slim resources.

The University's generous loan funds were set up out of genuine concern for the less prosperous undergraduate. In the majority of cases, loans with an interest rate of four and one-half percent or less are granted without collateral, and the University occasionally sanctions outright gifts of money to needy men. Nevertheless, the lending program remains anchored in the past and cannot successfully aid a student population three-quarters veteran. Lehman Hall insists on treating veteran loans in the same category as those to other students when the two cases are vastly different. It makes no provision for the fact that guaranteed government checks are the means for repayment and consequently rakes in four and one-half percent interest on advances that are admittedly riskproof. Any interest charge on such loans amounts to penalizing veterans for a mistake made by some anonymous clerk in the V.A.'s Boston office.

Several banks recognize the multi-fold problems facing check-shy students and have instituted a service which for a moderate fee advances the money and undertakes the tracing of a late government check. Since commercial establishments can shoulder student worries for a small fee, the University's non-profit loan office should extend a similar program virtually free.