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January 21,1997
Volume 19 Number 15
Gary Wright/The Paisano
A cold January rain could not deter supporters in one of several marches scheduled Monday in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther KingJr.'s birthday. Dr. King was a pivotal figure of the American civil rights movement of the 1960's.
Downtown campus funding in hands of legislature
By Cynthia Klekar
StoffWriter
UTSA submitted a legislative bud¬ get request forthe amount of $12 mil¬ lion to be used as start-up funds for the downtown campus, according to Emest DeWinne, vice president for business affairs at UTSA. The request was submitted to the legislative Budget Board last summer.
^>?l^cording to DeWinne, the request ¦for aa4itional funds has been in the downtowri campus planning trom the start. "There was never any discus¬ sion; it was always in the plan," said DeWinne. "When you are given funds to build a new campus, it is expected that you will receive start-up funds."
Planning and construction of the downtown campus was initiated at the request of the Texas legislature. The legislature appropriated funds and set up tuition revenue in response to the South Texas border settlement which claimed an-inequity in higher public education in San Antonio and South Texas.
"We've [UTSA] accomplished what the legislatui-e wanted: the cam¬ pus is more accessible to more pecple," said DeWinne. The target area for the downtown campus includes schools located in the San Antonio Indepen¬ dent School District and others. "A tremendous population of students
The Downtown campus is slated to open for summer session 11. Groundbreaking for the Buena Vista street building is sched¬ uled for 2p.m. this Friday.
should find the [downtown] campus to their liking," said DeWinne. Although DeWinne claims it is normal for the legislature to give start-up funds to a new campus, additional funding was denied by the legislative budget board in a funding draft copy. "We [UTSA] had $900,000 appropriated in fiscal 1996 and we are using that money to run it [the downtown campus] this summer, However, we didn't get any additional funding in the firsl pass through," said DeWinne.
DeWinne added that the chances of UTSA receiving the funds is "a matter of priority." The funds used to finance higher education come from the gen¬
eral .revenue fund supported by tax dollars.
As a precaution, UTSA administra¬ tors are presently working on alterna¬ tives in case the legislature doesn't approve the $12 million. "Currently we are trying to come up with a worksheet that outlines pext year. We are working under the assumption that there will be no additional funding," said DeWinne.
One alternative could be to raise thc general fee. Although UTSA docs noj have the authority to raise tuition in order to compensate for a lack ol funds, the university is permitted to raise thc general fee to the level of tuition.
Job Search on the Internet Student loan default rate
By Brian Krueger
College Press Service
Searching for ajob has become one of the truly viable functions of the much-hyped Intemet. While i lost col¬ lege students have maintained an ac¬ tive pipeline into the Net for some time, thc rest of the world is only recently becoming aware of its exist¬ ence. It's only in the past few years that business u.se ofthe Net has come into widespread usage. This spells good news for college students, since many have ready on-campus access to all that the Internet has to offer. The following are the top .seven Web sites to begin yourjob search surfing:
Online Career Center (http:// www.occ.com): OCC provides one of the most comprehensive (and usable) employer databases and career infor¬ mation services on the Internet for job hunters. You can keyword search all ads. or view them by industry, state, r city. OCC is spon¬ sored by a non-profit asso¬ ciation of employers who are paying big dollars (it's in the thousands) for the privilege of being listed, so yes, these are real jobs with real com¬ panies.
The database of jobs reads like a virtual who's who list of corpo¬ rate America. While companies are paying big bucks for the privilege, you get free access. You also can post your r^sum^ for free and make it available to all who are interested (remember— entry level is not a time to be shy or overly confidential). Send your resumd in either text format or HTML (Web) format to occ-resumes@occ.com. Re¬ member that your subject line is the first information that an employer will see, so make sure that it is enticing— but you must keep the subject line to 45 charactr'-s or less, so be specific. Your r^sum^ will stay active in the OCC database for 90 days, although you can update it (and therefore restart the 90- day clock) at any time. Note that each e-mail account is permitted only one r£sum£ at any given time, so if youf roommate uploads via your account.
your resume is history.
For those of you that lack Internet access altogether, you can mail your typed resume (cover letter optional, maximurn three pages total, along with a subject line) and the $10 mail pro¬ cessing fee to: Online Resume Ser¬ vice, 1713 Hemlock Lane, Plainfield, IN. 46168.
E-Span (http://www.espan.com): E- Span provides a fully searchable jobs database that adds an interesting addi¬ tional twist: you are able to enter your personal profile (including your edu¬ cational level, years of experience, current job level, salary requirements, geographic areas desired, and job key¬ words). E-Span then will keep you posted on all new job opportunities that match your profile. You can con¬ duct an initial search agaitist the jobs database, then have E-Span keep you informed via e-mail as new positions
While most college students have maintained an active pipeline into the Net for some time, the rest of the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence.
are posted. Participating employers are given basically the same function in reverse: they can conduct a search against the r^sumd database, then post ajob which will "troll" for new r^sumds as they are submitted. In addition to the Web, E-Span can be. found on CompuServe (where it can be accessed free as part of the basic services in¬ cluded in their monthly flat fee pro¬ gram), America Online, and GEnie.
Most of the online databases are updated on a once- or twice-pcr-week basis, while the Web site is updated continually. You also can can upload your rdsumd for free directly to the E- Span ResumePro Database, where it can be viewed by interested employ¬ ers. E-mail your resumd in text (ASCII) format in the body of th' *ssage to resume@espan.com and e the sub¬ ject line as the title for your r^sumd.
You will be given a passcode by return e-mail which will allow you to view, edit and delete your resum6 so that you can keep it current.
CareerMosaic(http:// www.careermosaic.com): Career Mo¬ saic is a very well-designed Wt j site brought to you by Bernard Hodes Ad¬ vertising, one of the leading employ¬ ment advertising agencies in the U.S. Their J.O.B.S. database is not as large as those of OCC and E-Span, but is certainly worth spending some time surfing through. Job hunters are al¬ lowed to search by job title, descrip¬ tion, company, city, si ,te, zip code, and country. In addition; CareerMosaic's Usenet Search allows you to search the multitude of national, regional, and local Usenet newsgroups for job opportunity postings. Their front-end search engine, which allows for a combination of geographical and keyword search, is thc most intuitive front-end for Usenet search on the Web. Their International Gateway provides access to jobs in Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong and France; Their online ResumeCM form allows you tocut and paste your ASCII resumd for up¬ load to theirdatabase. And CareerMosaic also serves as home, to some of the very best em¬ ployer jobs pages on the Web, so be sure to check out their Employers list¬ ings.
Monster Board (http:// www.monster.com): Monster Board provides a very cool interface with more than 50,000 jobs ready and wait¬ ing. While most of the jobs are skewed toward the experienced, there are plenty of entry-level jobs to be found. The Career Surfari section provides a fun romp with their monsters (I'm still not sure what monsters have to do with job search, but the graphical monsters do provide an original motiO- You also can submit your electronic rdsum^ to tbe Resume On-Line section and surf through more than 300 different em¬ ployer profiles. Definitely worth thc visit. Continued on page 3
declines dramatically
By Charles Dervarlcs
College Press Service
The percentage of college students who defaulted on their student loans has declined 'o its lowest level ever, according to the U.S. Education De¬ partment.
About 10.7 percent ofstudents were in default on their loans in 1994, the most recent year for which data is available, the department said. This rate is less than half the 22.4 percent rate recorded in 1990.
"We have u.sed every tool aval lable to slash the default rate and save tax¬ payers hundreds of mil¬ lions of dollars, and these efforts will continue, " said Education Secretary Richard Riley.
New enforcement power, improved loan collections and new technology all con¬ tributed to the turnaround in default rates, the department said. Congress in 1990 and 1992 gave the department more leverage to deny schools access to financial aid dollars ifthey maintain high default rates.
Under these policies, colleges with default rates above 25 percent for Ihree consecutive years can lose the right to participate in student loan programs.
Also, those schools whose latest one-year default rate exceeds 40 per¬ cent can lose eligibility forall financial aid programs, including grants to stu¬ dents.
In 1996, 144 schools were deemed ineligible to participate in student loan programs because of high default rates. Private trade and technical schools make up the bulk ofthese institutions.
The progress in combatting loan defaults eamed praise from President Clinton, who hosted Riley and college students Jan. 10 in an Oval Office meeting.
"We have tracked down defaulters and made them pay," said Clinton, who also acknowledged that an im¬ proving economy contributed to the
higher repayment rates.
Overall, collections on defaulted loans increased from $ I billion in 1992 to $2.2 billion in 1996.
Despite the progress, the depart¬ ment onJan. 10 also pul more than 350 schools on notice that they risk losing eligibility for some or all student-aid programs in the next year. Most of these institutions are for-profit trade and technical schools.
About two dozen public or private
"We have used every tool available to slash the default rate and save taxpay¬ ers hundreds of millions of dollars, and these efforts will continue." Richard Riley, Secretary of Education
two-and four-year colleges also are on the list of those at risk for losing eligi¬ bility. Mosl of these institutions are two year community colleges or small, four-year church affiliated colleges.
College students who attended the White House event also credited the Clinton administration's new direct loan program with helping lower de¬ fault rates and improve efficiency. Under this program, the government provides loan capital directly to insti¬ tutions without requiring help from banks.
Students have various options to repay their direct loans such as in¬ come-contingent repayment, in which borrowers have smaller payments im¬ mediately after they finish college and repay more of their debt as tbey eam higher wages.
"TTiis is government policy at its besl," said Fiona Rose, student gov¬ ernment president at the University of Michigan. >
By cutting out banks, the direct loan program also allows for more timely loans to students, she said.
Nonetheless, Rose acknowledged many college and university students
still remain apprehensive about col¬ lege costs and their mounting debt bur¬ dens. "It's making mc rethink plans for graduate school," she said, adding that most of her classmates remain concerned about heavy debt after they leave college.
The three volumes of data released at the While House ceremony also con¬ tain school-by-schooi default rates on more than S.OOOcollegcs and universi¬ ties.
Data lists student default rates from   1992 through 1994. To find out more infomialit>n about an individual Institution, con¬ tact ED's Office ol Public Affairs at (202) 40I-I576' Historically  black colleges and universities and   Iribally-controlled schools and colleges are exempt through July 1998, These exemptions, along wilh other siudent loan policies, will get a detailed review later this year as Congress begins a required reauthori¬ zation ofthe federal Higher Education Act.
Inside
this
issue...
pg. 4 Cigar-smoking: the new trend on campus
pg. 7 Jeru the Damaja's latest CD
pp. 8-9 UTSA drops four over the weekend
pg. 10 Photo poll: Students talk about
commencement at the Convo