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Distribution of private endowments may be affec

By Daily Bruin Staff

Nov. 18, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, November 19, 1996

FINANCIAL AID:

Donors often require funds to be given to a specific groupBy
Shari Sklut

Daily Bruin Contributor

Proposition 209 impacts underrepresented financial aid
recipients far less than minority admissions and programs,
according to university financial aid officials.

The controversial law prohibits the university from giving
preferential treatment to anyone on the basis of race, sex, color,
ethnicity or national origin.

Because university officials do not know what new evaluation
criteria will replace affirmative action, the full impact of
Proposition 209 remains unclear, especially with financial aid.

"Students should not be apprehensive," Associate Vice Chancellor
of Academic Development Raymond Paredes stressed. "We will do
everything we can to maintain access and protect the circumstances
of students."

Only around $7 million of more than $220 million in UCLA student
aid funds target students in a way that violates Proposition 209,
Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Academic Services and
Registrar Tom Lifka said.

Most of the affected funds assist minority doctoral candidates
as well as help recruit more traditionally underrepresented faculty
to UCLA.

Despite 209’s passage, however, most of the university’s
financial aid funding remains untouched, due in part to the
measure’s wording. The measure "does not prohibit reasonably
necessary, bona fide qualifications based on sex and actions
necessary for the receipt of federal funds," leaving federal
financial aid funds unaltered by the law.

The law’s wording also creates some ambiguity with regards to
its interpretation.

"The problem is that the language is not altogether clear" in
which funds it affects and which it leaves alone, Paredes said.

Dana Callihan, deputy director for public and governmental
relations at the California Student Aid Commission, said that the
major financial aid programs on the state level such as Cal and
Pell Grants will also remain untouched by 209, since only merit and
economic need influence considerations for those forms of aid.

The biggest problem in dealing with financial aid funds lies in
devising a system to deal with private endowments, which comprise
approximately $1.2 million of the affected funds, administrators
said.

The dilemma over private funds arises because the university
accepts private donations under conditions of disbursement
prescribed by the donors, Interim Graduate Division Assistant Vice
Chancellor Jim Turner said.

For example, some forms of financial aid are donated and limited
exclusively to Mexican-Americans, Jewish engineers and Armenian
students.

When the university accepts those funds, they also accept the
limitations set by the donors that govern their disbursements.

Since the university agrees to distribute them in the manner
specified by the donors, the university cannot predict the future
of this money under Proposition 209.

"The immediate question is to come up with criteria for the
administering of this funding," Turner said. Barring a court
injunction, the university must devise a temporary plan to deal
with these funds under the new law, and is currently consulting
with a variety of groups and legal counsel to determine how to
handle this problem.

If the law prohibits them from giving money with specific
requests, more donors might take their offers to other
institutions, said Ronald W. Johnson, director of UCLA’s financial
aid office.

Expressing concern about Proposition 209’s impact on donors
making private contributions to the university, he noted that the
university could see a decline in funds donated with racial
limitations.

Although 209 affects only 3 to 4 percent of all financial aid
funds, that money is now up for grabs by all students eligible
beyond those preferences outlawed by the measure.

"The amount in question, though small, will be a disadvantage to
students affected by Proposition 209 … This is not to say that
students will not be competitive," Johnson said. "There have always
been targeted scholarships."

Those students who currently receive preference-based financial
aid will continue to do so through the full terms of their award.
"We have made a promise to students who are already here," Turner
said. "We will honor all of those commitments.

"As of now, an attempt will be made to obey the law," he added.
"The challenge is to define the eligibility to comply with 209 and
still attract students and maintain diversity.

"The essential question is how do you define diversity without
race and gender as the criteria," Turner said.

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