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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1989)
ilic uauaiiuii ESTATE & LOCAL 'Thursday, July 6,1989 3 A&M has lowest loan default rate By Kelly S. Brown SENIOR STAFF WRITER m article )TAMU ther to live o ending. ^ ^ ere need 'Propriate I d establish igementii many le at ' Battalion 'ead: ‘ certainly litional B Texas A&M has the lowest stu dent loan default rate of any public university in the state because of a debt counseling program and a stu dent body who cares about the fu ture of their school, Donald Enge- ge, director of Student Financial Aid, said. ■ During the 1986 fiscal year, H&M’s default rate on guaranteed Rudent loans was 4.4 percent, Enge- |age said. fl The data is based on more than 2,300 students who were in the proc ess of repaying their loans during the 1986 fiscal year — the last year for which comparative data is avail able. “I think having such a low default rate says a lot about A&M and its stu dents,” he said. “We have the type of students here who are attached to their school and care what happens around here — students who are going to pay their debts regardless.” Some of the success the Student Financial Aid office is having, Enge- lage said, has to do with its effective debt management dealings. Like most universities, the SEA of fice at A&M offers counseling to stu dents who are thinking of taking out a loan, as well as for those who al ready have loans, but A&M goes a step further in simplifying the mat ter for students — it has put it all on video. Engelage said A&M is one of the few, if not the only, institutions in the nation to develop a student loan video where the terms of the loan, what’s expected of them, and what will happen if they don’t repay their loans are explained to students. The video is shown to incoming freshman and transfer students dur ing orientation. The Guaranteed Student Loan Program, now known as the Stafford Student Loan Program, is based on need. The loan is government- funded by the Department of Edu cation and is offered to students whose financial aid needs cannot be met by grants. Engelage said the loan must be paid back in increments at 8 percent interest beginning six months after a student graduates, drops out or takes less than six hours. “The amount a student pays each month depends on how big the loan is,” he said. “For example, if a fresh man or sophomore takes out their maximum amount of $2,625, they will be making a payment of maybe $100 or so a month.” Juniors and seniors may receive the maximum of a $4,000 loan, while graduate students can take out a loan of up to $7,500. AES says killer bees could threaten U.S., asks for $675,000 to create defense plan ns that art differ in living i excellent j ^ struggles By Chuck Squatriglia imor or CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Killer bees, once a popular horror movie [heme, could pose a serious threat to the United tales, and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service has asked the state for $675,000 to create ji plan of defense against them. I “Killer bees” is not an accurate name for the ■nsect, said Dr. John G. Thomas, extension ento- We would lf ri0 * o S* st w ' t * 1 TA.ES, because the bees are not 29 fteadly, but they do possess some traits which Trould make them dangerous to the U.S. health ind economy. They are expected to reach ummer. Brownsville by the mid-1990s. Called Africanized honey bees, they are not as serious a health threat as the media has made them appear, Thomas said. “The bees are not as bad as any of the movies they’ve seen or any of the accounts they have re ad,” he said, “but to tell people there will be no problem would be equally misleading. Presently, we have less than one death annually in Texas due to honey bee stings. I would anticipate that we double or triple that figure once the African ized honey bee establishes itself in I exas. The main reason for the anticipated increase in the number of deaths is that AH B colonies generally have a greater number of bees than a domestic honey bee colony, and the AHB is much more defensive once threatened, he said. “The probability of being stung if you disturb an Africanized colony is ten times greater than it is with a European bee colony,” he said. “Africa nized bees respond more quickly, and more of them respond when the colony is threatened. In stead of suffering one or two stings, a person may suffer ten or 20.” There is absolutely no difference between the venom of an Africanized bee and a domestic bee, and the medical treatment for the two types of bees are identical, he said. The only threat is to See Bees/Page 4 A&M project prepares 36 minority educators to be college presidents By Richard Tijerina STAFF WRITER Texas A&M will train hopeful future minority leaders this sum mer, as 36 Texas college minority faculty members take part in the second phase of a two-year pro ject to prepare them to become college presidents. The Minority Leadership in Technical and Vocational Educa tion Project is a two-year plan to develop a leadership program for community college and technical institute minority personnel, spe cifically blacks and Hispanics. The A&M program is the first of its kind in the state of Texas, Dr. Laverne Young, project man ager and assistant professor in in dustrial education, said. The program was made possi ble from a $325,000 federal grant under the Carl D. Perkins Voca tional Education Act from the Texas Higher Education Coordi nating Board. The grant, awarded in July 1988, was matched by University vocational educational funds. Participants in the program, who were nominated by commu nity college presidents across Texas, will be involved in a year long program that began Wednesday. They will attend a three-week institute on the A&M campus. After a two-semester in ternship program next fall and spring semesters, they will return for another three-week institute. Young said the people nomi nated by their community college presidents to participate in the program were considered to have the potential to move up to higher positions, such as college presidents and vice presidents. “It’s an effort to recruit and get more minorities in key leadership positions,” Young said. “In all the community colleges in the state of Texas, there are no black presi dents and only a couple of His- anic presidents. It’s an effort to uild a cadre of people who could move into those positions.” Dr. Donald Clark, head of the department of industrial educa tion, said he has been involved with the project since its begin ning. Clark said he handles the fiscal side of the program, and A&M’s request for the proposal of the program was accepted over institutions including the Univer sity of North Texas and the Uni versity of Houston. The program also has created a minority data bank, which holds the resumes of nearly 200 faculty the University could send to See Leadership/Page 4 ‘d ri camp udents ies of similar able for hear .” The ith open I r ;es >w I do lined on r where ant ises mises to and ig,but lave d. I 'ersforstyk include tlu c do you ) throw r ascistic st into seldom ntry — cal and ; condi- ig part scream ;oward atriot- o first es on — the ; been om of m be ll of d COTTON TEES, TANKS & SHORTS BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL Show your - spirit in pure cotton activewear with school colors and emblems. They show the world that “We’re #1!” Young men’s sizes S-M-L-XL. Thes and tanks, 14.00. Shorts, 22.00. 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