Educational Opportunity Aid Increases H-R Student Funds

The 260 per cent increase in the number of Harvard and Radcliffe students receiving federal funds from the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) "shows that the government's executive branch is anxious to replace campus-based programs with individual funding," Seamus P. Malin, Director of Financial Aid Office at Harvard College, said yesterday.

Independent

The BEOG, now in its second year, is the only federal funding program students can apply to directly instead of depending on the University, Malin said.

The other federal funding programs: the Student Educational Organization Grant (SEOG) and the Work-Study Program, (both part of the Higher Education Act of 1965) and the National Direct Student Loan (NDSL), the successor to the National Defense Student Loan, are campus-based. Students must apply to the Harvard or Radcliffe Financial Aid Offices to receive funds.

The number of applicants for the BEOG rose from 14 in 1973-74 to 53 in 1974-75 at Radcliffe, and from 13 to 79 at Harvard. The federal funding increased approximately 800 per cent for Radcliffe and 600 per cent for Harvard.

Work Study

Harvard's funds for the NDSL went down 18 per cent over last year and SEOG funds also decreased. The Work Study Program, however, received almost $100,000 more this year.

"This year Work-Study went up because we asked for more money, but the drop in the other program's funding was due to new universities applying for federal aid while the Congress did not increase the funding appropriation," Malin said.

All of Radcliffe's federal funds rose at least nine per cent, except for the Work Study Program capital which decreased by no more than eight per cent. "There is no dramatic decrease in funds, we are being funded at the same level as last year," Sylvia J. Simmons, Director of Financial Aid at Radcliffe, said yesterday.