Northeastern Voice

Lauding Northeastern, Kennedy draws attention to aid

Sen. Edward Kennedy discusses the importance of federal loans to university students during a hearing Monday in Raytheon Amphitheater. / CRAIG
BAILEY

Hailing Northeastern as “one of our great educational resources, not only in Massachusetts but nationwide,” Sen. Edward Kennedy held a hearing at Northeastern’s Raytheon Amphitheater to call attention to the issue of student aid in a tightening economy.

The hearing was introduced by Northeastern President Joseph Aoun, who earlier in the day had announced that Northeastern will begin participating in the Federal Direct Loan Program (see separate story).

Aoun said Northeastern took the step in part because of Kennedy’s “inspiration, your leadership, your values.”

Noting that two-thirds of Massachusetts college students use loans to finance their education, Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, spoke briefly and questioned a variety of witnesses in front of a room packed with students and university officials from around the region.

Recent years have seen “a flattening of the salaries of hard-working people,” he said, even as mortgage, fuel and health-care costs have risen dramatically. He said tuition at Massachusetts public colleges climbed 59 percent between 2001 and 2006, while median family income rose only 20 percent.

Massachusetts, he said, is more susceptible than average to any pressures on higher education. The state “has no natural resources … We’re dependent on the minds, the intelligence, the creativity, the brilliance of our citizens in order to be leaders” economically, he said.

In opening testimony, Sara Martinez Tucker, the U.S. undersecretary of education for post-secondary education and student aid, said she wants to “reassure students and families that federal aid will be there for them in this coming school year.”

Federal aid has increased 300 percent in recent years, mostly in the form of federally guaranteed student loans, she said.

The Education Department, said Tucker, is taking a three-pronged approach to turbulence in financial markets that might affect student loans: it’s monitoring the market to keep an eye on the health of lending institutions; it’s doing more outreach to universities and to students about their options for aid; and it’s creating “backstops” to ensure that aid will be delivered even if private lenders drop out of the market.

Kennedy said the Senate-passed Higher Education Bill last year raised the amount of federal Pell Grants for college and set limits for repayment terms, and required private lenders to advise potential borrowers of lower-cost alternatives for student loans.

Kennedy also heard from student-loan advisers and from a student at Salem State College who has to work several jobs to pay tuition.