By James M. Hunnicutt
Staff Writer
The Student Assembly will work with other campus groups to encourage students to write to Rep. Charlie Bass '74, R-N.H., and ask him to protest proposed financial aid cuts in Congress.
Volunteers will staff a table in The Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next three days. The volunteers will have pre-written form letters for students to sign.
The Assembly's Executive Committee proposed the idea at its meeting on Sunday. Since the Assembly meeting was canceled last night, the general Assembly never voted on the issue. Instead, the Executive Committee authorized the campaign.
The Republican's "Contract With America" proposes curbing government spending and cutting federal programs across the board, and one of the areas Republicans have targeted to cut has been spending on education.
Many Dartmouth students, especially minorities, have expressed concerns over the proposed cuts. A rally in mid February against the cuts attracted about 50 students. At the time, Assistant Director of Financial Aid Chad Puls said Dartmouth could lose up to $1.2 million if the cuts go through.
The letters, which will be written by Unai Montes-Irueste '98, will ask Bass to refuse to lend his support to any resolution that would reduce financial aid.
"The core of it will be in defense of federal support for higher education," he said. "I was asked to write it ... because of my involvement in the recent rally and because I wrote the petition letter protesting Proposition 187 last term."
Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 said the proposed cuts could have a detrimental effect on the entire campus. "The issue crosses all lines on campus: political, racial, gender," she said. "The diversity of the student body will be radically altered."
Sichitiu said the Assembly will try to compile all the signatures by Friday and send them to Bass.
The Assembly, La Alianza Latina, the Afro-American Society, Native Americans at Dartmouth and the Asian Pacific American Interest Focus will furnish volunteers, said La Alianza President Ana Henderson '94.
"It's just important that representatives in Washington, D.C., hear what we're thinking about," she said. "Bass is an alum as well as the representative of our district, so he should be listening to all of us."
Henderson said she and other concerned students discussed their disapproval of the proposed cuts and developed the idea to encourage students to petition Congress.
Assembly Vice President John Honovich '97 said outside sources have also influenced the effort.
"All the other Ivy League colleges are similarly motivated," he said. "We're going to do our part. It's part of our responsibility."
Henderson said she is confident students will sign the letters, because that kind of support takes so much less effort, she said.
"It's not like a rally," Honovich said, "I think students will be highly responsive."
