Massachusetts voters will decide this November 7 on the future of a state constitutional amendment which would authorize the Legislature to enact a student loan program.

The amendment was passed by a joint session of the State House and Senate in May, 1971, but the electorate has yet to ratify it. The state constitution presently prohibits the Commonwealth from pledging its credit for an individual.

Question four on the November ballot, the amendment will state that its passage would allow the Legislature "to enact a law to permit the Commonwealth to make loans for tuition and board at any college, university or institution of higher learning to students who are residents of the Commonwealth."

'Potpourri' May Become Constitutional

Graham Taylor, vice chancellor for student affairs on the State Board of Higher Education, said yesterday that a "potpourri of loan programs have been introduced" into the legislature in the past. If passed, the amendment that will appear on the November ballot, by making such legislation constitutional, "opens up a whole latitude of possibilities," he said.

Currently, $8 million are available for Massachusetts residents through a scholarship program which was instituted in 1967. Additional money goes to Massachusetts students through a private corporation set up by the Legislature in 1956 which administers guaranteed local bank loans under the Federal Guaranteed Loan Program.

The proposed amendment, however, would make it possible for the State itself to act as a lending agency.

The architects of a loan program may find it difficult to define residency requirements for loans because many students, who are originally from out of state, officially become state residents by registering to vote.