Protesters set up a collection plate to magnify the financial hardships that KSG graduates face. As of yesterday afternoon, the most generous donor was Joseph J. Stern, a lecturer in public policy who dropped a $20 bill into the bucket.

“Maybe if we can raise a token amount, we can convince the administration to chip in some of their spare change,” Tim Sultan, who is president of the Kennedy School Student Government, wrote in an e-mail.

“LRAP is a drop in the bucket of the school budget,” wrote Sultan, a former aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and a student in the KSG’s mid-career master’s in public administration program.

NYE LENDS AN EAR

Nye met with student protesters yesterday afternoon before catching an evening flight to the West Coast.

“They’re very reasonable people and we share the same objectives,” he said of the protesters.

But according to Sultan, “neither students nor alumni were consulted prior to making this important decision.”

He said Nye first informed student government leaders of the loan cap in a meeting last Thursday.

Nye wrote that the lack of student leaders’ input on financial matters resulted from the fact that “students are preoccupied with other things” during January and February, when the budget is set.

But Sultan characterized Nye’s explanation as a “cop-out.”

“Many of us were here the entire month of January...we’re disappointed that that’s the reason he’s given for the lack of student involvement,” Sultan said.

And while Nye and other administrators have agreed to include student representatives in budget discussions for fiscal year 2006, the student government “has not, however, been invited to participate in any budget decisions that would impact [fiscal year 2005],” Sultan said.

Nye said the school is actively seeking donors to supplement LRAP’s budget. He asked student leaders to help him raise funds for the program.

In the e-mail, Nye also wrote that he and other administrators “are open to alternative suggestions about how to allocate the monies for the LRAP program.”

Nye said yesterday that students and faculty have already presented ideas on how to revise the program’s policies.