COLLEGE SHORTS

Author: CAROLINE S. STAUFFER AND THOMAS C. DRESCHER

Senator addresses federal aid issues
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) informed student media reporters from across the country of President Bush's plans to cut funding for collegiate financial aid programs in a conference call Tuesday afternoon. He discussed student loan consolidation and the ramifications the proposed budget cuts will have for students who need financial aid to attend college, such as the elimination of the federally subsidized Perkins Loan Program.
Kennedy also informed students of the legislation he along with Senators Tom Petri (R-WI) and George Miller (D-CA) recently introduced to Congress that would create $17 billion in college scholarship aid at no additional cost to taxpayers. His proposal, known as the Bipartison Student Aid Reward (STAR) act, calls upon the Secretary of Education to chose the more efficient of two aid programs. In the fist program, loans are issued by the U.S. Treasury and private contractors are hired to service and collect student loans. In the second program, private banks and lenders finance the loans, which are subsidized by the federal Government. The first policy is much less expensive and therefore the STAR act encourages colleges and universities to utilize the loans guaranteed by the United States treasury instead of relying on private lenders who are assured a rate of return. Estimates show that the STAR rewards would equal approximately 5.5 percent of the total loans made by participating colleges.
- Star Act 2005

Campus protests force Taco Bell to pay for tomatoes
Taco Bell Corp. recently announced in a press release that it has agreed to pay Floridian tomato suppliers one cent per pound directly for their product, ending a four-year-long nationwide protest campaign orchestrated by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-based worker organization.
The CIW began its extended boycott of Taco Bell in 2001, demanding that the corporation take responsibility for alleged human rights abuses in places where its produce is grown and harvested. The March 8 CIW-endorsed press release stated that the resolution "sets a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry."
Since 2001, committees have been established on campuses in almost every state in an effort to "Boot the Bell" from high schools, colleges and universities.
Taco Bell president Emil Brolick said in a press release, "As an industry leader, we are pleased to lend our support to and work with the CIW to improve working and pay conditions for farm workers in the Florida tomato fields."
Brolick said the company recognizes that many tomato workers "do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other industries" and believes there is a need for reform. However, he did add in the release that Taco Bell was seeking an "industry-wide" solution.
"This is an important victory for farm workers - one that establishes a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry and makes an immediate material change in the lives of workers," Lucas Benitez, a CIW leader, said in the press release. "This sends a clear challenge to other industry leaders."

- U-Wire