Would Help Meet Deficit

5) N.Y.A. may well be a boon to the University, especially in the future. With private endowments on the decrease, the $80,000 a year which would come from N.Y.A. for use in the University, would be very necessary. Last year the University ended with a slight deficit.

In future years the deficit may grow larger, especially with the decrease in Student fees anticipated in Dean Chase's report. It seems to the Student Council Committee, that instead of cutting down expenses by reducing the pay of the faculty or by cutting down the number of teachers, or by reducing the present assistance to students, the budget problem could better be met by N.Y.A. funds.

The N.Y.A.funds, of course, do not add directly to the University's income. But these funds might partly release other funds for different uses in the University.

For example: at present T.S.E. is financed by Dining hall profits. If N.Y.A. were adopted, part of these funds from the Dining Halls could be diverted to Professors salaries. Or dining hall rates could be reduced to save students some money. Also many of the administrative offices of the college could benefit by the addition of N.Y.A.workers and therefore money which might go for extra assistants in these offices could be saved for other purposes. in other words, indirectly, the University budget could be benefited by the N.Y.A.grants, providing of course, that no one previously employed was replaced by an N.Y.A. worker.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED

The chief objections to N.Y.A. have been:

1) That political strings will be attached. But on the contrary, not the Government officials but the College officials administer the plan and select both the students and the jobs. The N.Y.A. provides the funds, stipulating only that the work done shall be of a useful and semi-public nature (i.e. not working for some private business corporation) and that the jobs done shall not result in the discharge of anyone at present employed.

2) That N.Y.A. doesn't pay enough. But the amount that can be earned often means the difference between staying and being forced leave college. As the Student Council well knows from the desperate requests for sums of $30.00 or less on the eve of each term bill, the opportunity to earn $15 a month in useful and instructive work would be a god-send to many undergraduates. Furthermore, the N.Y.A. aid can be used to supplement T.S.E. and the present Student Employment program. Thus a student who is now employed but finds it very difficult to make both ends to meet, would be enabled to stay in college without incurring uncomfortable financial obligations with friends or relatives

Not Difficult to Administer

3) Another objection often made is that N.Y.A. would be too difficult to administer. First of all the administrative duties are simple, mostly assigning work projects, keeping time slips and a monthly payroll. Mr. Sharpe, former director of Student Employment said in his report of 1935 that there would be few difficulties in administering such a program.

Since the N.Y.A. jobs would be much like those of T.S.E., both could probably be administered by the same office, a procedure followed by most colleges. It is possible that the University might have to hire an additional person to administer the N.Y.A. work-program, but we feel that the long-run benefits of the program, would out-weigh such a cost.

Furthermore, it is possible that the administrators of the N.Y.A. program could be students or graduate students paid by N.Y.A. funds. This was done at Tufts College. In this case there would be no expense at all for the college, as these men would do the main body of the work under the College official appointed to supervise the program, and such supervision should not be difficult.

4) Still another objection is that the College officials would have to perjure themselves by swearing that without N.Y.A.aid the students would be forced to leave college. That objection is no longer valid. N.Y.A. Form 304 (Application blank) merely requires that the University, the parent, and the applicant certify that "the work provided through the n.Y.A. is essential to enable the applicant to continue properly his education," And this is certainly a flexible and pleasantly vague statement.

5) Another objection, made less frequently now, is that N.Y.A. (originally the F.E.R.A.) is merely an emergency prospect of doubtful permanence. But N.Y.A. has been supported by both political parties, and has now been placed under the Federal Security Agency. There seems to be every indication that the N.Y.A. student work is here to stay.