Senators Fight Bill to Cut Student Exchange System

Five members of the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday assured the Student Council that they will actively support measures to defeat a House bill which would drastically cut funds for the international student exchange program.

David P. Bicks '55, vice-president of the Council, announced that he had received letters from Homer Ferguson (R-Mich.), Milton R. Young (R-N. Dak.), Edward J. Thye (R-Minn.), Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.), Lister Hill (D-Ala.), and Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.), all expressing enthusiastic interest in defeating the House bill.

Everett M. Dirkson (R-Ill.), and Leverett Saltonstall (R-Mass.) '14, told Bicks they would give the bill serious attention but would not commit themselves one way or the other. Saltonstall is chairman of the sub-committee which will handle it.

Thye wrote Bicks, "I assure you I will do my utmost as a member of the Appropriations Committee to obtain an adequate appropriation for the continuation of this very worthwhile program."

Mundt Would Lead Fight

Karl Mundt (R-S. Dak.) stated last week that he would, if necessary, lead a Senate fight to restore the $6 million cut by the House.

Bicks was in Washington last week, working to stop passage of the bill. He reported that over 20 groups are lobbying to prevent passage of the bill.

On March 8 the House had cut funds for the program. According to the bill which it passed and which now faces the Senate, only $1,500,000 would be used during the coming year to support foreign students in this country. Last year over $7 million was spent. Bicks noted that this particular cut was absorbing 70 per cent of the total State Department cut.

The overall reduction in the program was from $15 million to $9 million, which is $6 million below President Eisenhower's request and approximately the same amount below the program's current level of operations.

Captain Chester H. J. Keppler, counselor for foreign students here, said that the cut would "probably affect several hundred foreign students now here on government aid."