Toepfer Hits 'Need' System For Stipends

Granting scholarships and loans to students on the basis of "need," as presently defined, is often unfair, Louis A. Toepfer, vice-Dean of the Harvard Law School, asserted yesterday.

As an alternative he proposed a large-scale loan program whereby every Law School student would receive a "line of credit" up to $2500 for each academic year. The money would be repaid when the student has entered his profession.

In addition to relieving the pressure on middle income families, who are "squeezed hardest by the needs test" now employed, the program would make the School available to every student "regardless of his means."

"It is difficult to fix a minimum budget for someone else to live on," Toepfer wrote recently in the Law School's Alumni Bulletin. "Difficulties arise from the hundreds of students with an endless variety of backgrounds, family situations, and personal requirements."

"When dealing with people who are clearly rich or poor, in the old fashioned sense of these words, the 'needs' test was simple and efficient," he continued. "Now there aren't many rich and we don't see many poor."

One of the worst features of the present "needs" test, Toepfer remarked, is that it can penalize the thrifty. If a family scrimps and sacrifices to save money for the children's education, it may show less "need" for assistance than the family which spends most of its available income on a better house or automobile.