Cornell Gets $7 Million Gift To Increase Aid to Students

ITHACA, N.Y--Cornell officials reported last month a major increase in student aid funding with the announcement that a group of University alumni and friends has pledged $7 million over the next five years. The anonymous gift, which establishers a program called "The Cornell Tradition" is aimed at reducing student loans and creating and subsidizing summer jobs.

James J. Scannell, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, called the donation "the biggest thing in higher education as a singular response to the crisis of financial aid."

President Frank H. T. Rhodes, speaking at a joint meeting of the Cornell Council and the Board of Trustees, hailed the donation of "one of the most extraordinary gifts in the history of the university."

The program has three separate objectives: it will reduce the first-year loans of qualified freshman and transfers, cut the loans of qualified continuing students who work to contribute toward the cost of tuition, and create, subsidize and provide stipends for summer jobs.

The first part of the gift--$1.4 million--will be allotted in 1983-84 Eventually, according to Scannell, the university will try to establish an endowment for the program by raising additional funds.

For now, the program will focus on establishing 500 summer jobs for Cornell students, Scannell added. He expects about 350 of these jobs to be subsidized by the program at an average of 50 percent. Some living expense stipends will also be granted to students for the summer.

Cornell is the first institution in the country to use private funds to subsidize employment, according to Scannell "There is nothing like that in the country in higher education or else-where," Scannell said, the Cornell Daily Sun reported recently.

The new program will allow students to graduate with a smaller loan burden. "It is conceivable to graduate from college with a $2000 loan," the dean added, saying that "No private college can make that claim, Cornell could "be competitive with public institutions."