Low-Interest Loan Fund Set Up By Maine, N.Y., to Aid Students

Students from New York and New England will soon have an opportunity to finance their college education by loan plans outside the University, David B. H. Hadden, an official of the Massachusetts Higher Assistance Corporation, stated yesterday.

At its most recent session, the New York legislature authorized the establishment of a privately financed plan whereby students who are residents of New York State may borrow money. Eligibility to receive a loan is in no way affected by the state in which the student attends college.

In Maine, at the urging of Charles F. Phillips, president of Bates College, a New England Higher Assistance Foundation has been chartered to guarantee repayment of bank loans to students. The Foundation's goal is to raise $50,000 in the form of contributions from Maine industrial firms and although the Foundation as now set up proposes to aid only Maine residents, Phillips hopes to extend it to cover all New England.

The New York plan presents a "tremendous fundraising problem," asserted Hadden, because--unlike its Maine counterpart--the corporation intends to make loans directly to students.

These plans are patterned after the Massachusetts Higher Assistance Corporation, first of its kind, which in the past seven months has helped 1000 Massachusetts students to get through college with loans totaling $452,925.

Established last year by the Massachusetts legislature for the purpose of making low-interest, long-term bank loans available to qualified college students, the Corporation's approval of loans submitted by the banks carries with it a guaranty of 80 per cent of their value.