$1.5 Billion Service Bill Passes Senate

After months of wrangling on Capitol Hill, the Senate passed a compromise version of President Clinton's national service bill last Wednesday, clearing the final hurdle for the implementation of the $1.5 billion program.

The bill, which fulfills a campaign promise of Clinton's, will reward students who complete a year or two years of community service with funding for college tuition. It had previously been approved by the House of Representatives.

Participants will receive $4,725 toward tuition per year of service, as well as living allowances during the service time of at least $7,400 per year and health and child-care benefits.

The program, scheduled to start sometime next year, is budgeted for 20,000 participants and $300 million the first year, 33,000 participants and $500 million the second year and 47,000 participants and $700 million spent the third year.

Some criticized the bill's high cost. The implementation of direct lending of federal student aid, passed as part of the budget this summer, is supposed to compensate by saving approximately $1 billion by cuutting out the middleman and allowing colleges to loan money directly to students.

But several other governmental aid programs will be cut in the name of finding money for national service, said Jane H. Corlette, Harvard's acting vice president for government and community affairs.

"Originally they proposed a 20 percent cut in aid provided by campus programs...college work-study, state student grants and others," Corlette said. "Now there will only be a 4.9 percent cut in those programs. In the long run, I am concerned that national service could cause cuts in financial aid as a whole."

But she called the program "a good start" and emphasized that Harvard supports the idea of public service nationwide. "I think it's something we'll just have to watch over the next few years," she said.

Greg A. Johnson '72, executive director of Phillips Brooks House (PBH), said he would like to see the national service program include PBH and similar college groups that offer public service works, something not specifically outlined in the cur-rent bill.

Johnson said he had discussions with Eli J. Segal, the director of national service, about the possibility of incorporating public service during undergraduate years.

Segal visited PBH last month, Johnson said. "He was very impressed by what he saw," Johnson said. "He has talked about the possibility of including undergraduates in the program but has not figured out how to do it."

Johnson said running the pro-gram through existing public service structures would save money by eliminating the need for additional administrative overhead. "My original thought was that there was too little money [budgeted]. The only way to make it truly national is to get more bang for the buck," he said.