Grad School Students Protest Proposed Federal Loan Cuts

Joining a broad student movement protesting proposed cuts in federal tuition support, students at the School of Education and the Medical School have launched separate letter-writing campaigns aimed at Congress and intended to preserve crucial loan subsidies.

Students at both schools have mailed hundreds of form letters, as well as personal messages, to representatives and senators, asking the legislators to block a Reagon Administration plan to eliminate special low-interest loans for graduate and professional students.

"It will be more impressive to Congress to hear from students, although we are very concerned," Mary M. Murphy, the Ed School's director of admissions and financial aids, said yesterday.

Size Rather Than Style

Students, meanwhile, emphasized that the size of the protest here and at other schools will help determine whether Congress is swayed to oppose Reagan. "It's quantity over quality," said Rene Hobbs, a member of the Ed School's student association, describing the letter campaign.

More than 1200 of the 1570 students of the two schools receive subsidized loans in the Guaranteed Student Loan program, which is now aimed for large cuts for undergraduates as well as graduate students.

If Congress approves the proposed reductions, hundreds of thousands of students nationwide would have to seek higher-interest loans or alternate success of tuition support.

Harvard has vowed to increase its financial offerings if federal aid is reduced severely.

The Ed School and Graduate School of Design have planned independent fund drives to counter federal cuts, and the GSD has already raised $200,000 this year, three times more than it raised last year for financial aid.

The Ed School will begin its campaign next month, aiming for a total of $400,000.

University officials said that other graduate schools here have not conducted fund drives specifically in response to current federal aid reduction proposals.