The Student Assembly kicked off its first meeting of the Spring term Tuesday night, passing a resolution on financial aid, discussing extensions of library hours and electing members to its Membership and Internal Affairs committee.
The Assembly passed a resolution expressing concern about President George Bush's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget, which eliminates Perkins Loans, currently capped at $4,000 per year, while raising the maximum federal Pell Grant award by $500.
"Obviously with the deficit and the budget cuts a lot of different groups are being affected, and college students are one of them," resolution sponsor Jacques Hebert '07 said.
Perkins Loans, available to undergraduate and graduate students demonstrating financial need, are locked into a five percent interest rate.
The Assembly's resolution also addresses recently proposed updates to the tax tables used to calculate students' financial needs. The changes would disqualify students who were eligible for aid before the updates.
"A family who would normally qualify for a Pell Grant under the tax tables including state level taxes doesn't, because the tax tables were updated without taking those state and local taxes into account," Hebert said.
According to Hebert, the tax table updates would cost Dartmouth students approximately $55,000 total. However, the College will make up the lost federal aid for students who may become ineligible for their federal loans in accordance with its policy to meet all students' financial need.
Although the College will continue meeting students' financial needs, the changes are eliminating certain funds that students have relied upon in the past, Hebert explained.
"The financial aid office has to struggle to find a way to meet the needs for that student," Hebert said, noting that other schools have been affected more profoundly.
The resolution was inspired by one passed by the student government at the University of Pennsylvania. Hebert, who heads Dartmouth's chapter of Ivy Council, said he expects that the rest of the Ivy League student governments will have a similar version of the resolution passed before attending the next Council meeting later this spring. If the entire Ivy Council approves the resolution, the issue might garner more attention nationally.
"Should this pass at the conference, there'll definitely be a press release about it," Hebert said.
The Assembly also used Tuesday night's meeting to announce a formal proposal extending library hours.
A proposal to keep Baker-Berry Library open until 2:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights and until 3:00 a.m. during finals period was formally submitted to Provost Barry Scherr.
The effort to extend library hours has been a long time in the making, according to Academic Affairs Committee Chair Russ Lane '06.
"The initial push was to get it extended during finals, and now because of the expansion of the library, and its central position on campus, we think it's necessary that they should extend the hours because it is a student space," Lane said.
The Assembly conducted a campus-wide survey in which "the overwhelming majority" of students expressed interest in having hours extended from midnight during the week, Lane said.
Associate Librarian Cyndy Pawlek, who submitted the proposal, said that the only cost, from the library's perspective, would be hiring two additional part-time staffers to work at the information desks during the extended hours.
"It's totally a staffing issue, because we need to provide security for the collections and the people in the building," Pawlek said.
Pawlek said the proposal is in the provost's hands.
"[Scherr] has interest in hearing about the student need," Pawlek said. "I know he's heard it in the past and interested in hearing what it would take to make the change."
The Assembly also elected three students to its MIAC committee, which chooses students for other committees and groups, among other duties. Jeffrey Coleman '08, Jacqueline Loeb '08 and Leslie Shribman '08 were voted to the committee.
