Officials from Duke Student Government submitted a report Feb. 21 to a University committee detailing possible alterations to the University's financial aid-car policy.
In response, members of the University Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid formed a subcommittee to study DSG's suggestions.
"We were trying to think of ways to lessen the burden on students until we could abolish it," said Trinity junior Sheri Shepherd, a West Campus DSG legislator, of the current policy, which reduces by 35 percent of an automobile's blue-book value the amount of financial aid received by students who want to keep cars on campus. "I don't think students will be happy until it's totally gone."
Indeed, the underlying philosophy of the current mandate has been a target of student criticism for most of its 18-year history, and the University is one of the only institutions of its caliber to penalize students for bringing cars to campus.
"The policy is discriminatory against financial aid students because the financial aid student isn't any different from the non-financial aid student in the sense of how much they would need a car on campus," Trinity sophomore Julia Kashtelyan said last October, adding that the policy contradicts the University's claim of being a "need-blind institution."
But James Belvin, director of undergraduate financial aid and a member of the admissions and financial aid committee, explained that his office assumes families of students who have cars on campus can pay more than families of students who do not.
Student leaders have said this assumption is both unfair and impractical, as it prevents many financial aid recipients from holding more lucrative off-campus jobs, performing various acts of community service and enjoying a cheaper method of travel to their families' homes.
"I frankly have not, at this point, looked at the proposals," Belvin said, adding that his office will not study the proposed revisions until this summer because it is currently busy devising and issuing aid packages for members of the incoming Class of 2001. "But there are certainly some that we should give some consideration to."
The proposed modifications are the first of their kind. Belvin had previously challenged students who disagree with the policy to come up with a viable alternative, but they did not do so until last month when DSG submitted five different options to the committee for further investigation.
The first recommends that families applying for financial aid list all their vehicles on the student's aid application. Although the report states that aid should not be deducted automatically for the ownership of these vehicles, it suggests that the financial aid office should have access to this information for aid allocation purposes to use in cases of excessive car ownership.
The second recommendation would establish a flat rate of $200 that all students on financial aid would have to pay if they brought cars to campus. "Assuming 40 percent of Duke's 6,000 undergraduates are on financial aid, and assuming that 50 percent of those aid students bring cars to campus, the new policy would bring in approximately the same amount of revenue as the old policy," the report states.
The third suggestion would change the amount of aid subtracted from a student's financial aid package from 35 to 10 percent of the car's blue-book value.
The fourth proposal advises that the flat rate of 35 percent be repealed entirely. The report recommends instead that the University institute a gradual fee system that would charge students different amounts based on the values of their cars. For example, students with cars worth $5,000 or less would be charged nothing, students with cars valued between $5,000 and $10,000 would be charged 10 percent of that value, students with vehicles worth between $10,000 and $15,000 would be charged 15 percent of the value and so on.
With such reduced rates, the DSG report claims, more students would bring cars to campus. The extra revenue they would bring in, therefore, would compensate for the money lost as a result of lower fees.
"It's a zero-sum game," said Trinity senior Takcus Nesbit, president of DSG, emphasizing that administrators will only institute one or more of the proposed alternatives if they will not lose any money in the process.
The final DSG recommendation offers to the administration a way that it can save money. It suggests that the financial aid office adjust a car-owning student's travel allowance-which some financial aid packages provide to students, depending upon where they live-to equal the amount of only one round-trip airplane ticket instead of the multiple tickets which they now allow. The proposal assumes that students with cars would drive rather than fly home.
DSG's February resolutions were preceded in November 1996 by a resolution from the organization urging the University to repeal the current policy, which it dubbed "archaic."
Because the 1997-98 budget has already been formulated, Belvin said any modifications to the policy cannot be put into effect until the 1998-99 academic year.
If the committee adopts one or more of the proposals, it will submit its recommendation to Provost John Strohbehn, who has the authority to decide ultimately whether to modify the policy.
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