Spinnaker [Distributed: Wednesday, January 24, 2007]

The newly Democratic Congress recently passed a resolution by 356 to 71 to cut need-based student loan interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent by the year 2011, a move which has drawn criticism from Republicans and education analysts alike.

Under the plan, students could save thousands of dollars when repaying their loans. However, the plan only affects loans issued after July 2007. It will have no effect on current loans or any issued before then. The interest rate cut will only apply to subsidized Stafford loans and not affect unsubsidized loans, Perkins loans or loans taken out by parents. According to congressional estimates, the plan would cost nearly $6 billion - a cost to be paid by the banking and lending industries in the form of lower subsidies, which will then cast the associated costs down to the consumer to be sure.

Supporters of the plan hail it as a way to help more students go to college by making it easier to repay their loans. However, instead of offering more funding to Pell and other grant programs, or increasing the amount of aid available to students, the plan only encourages more low- and middle-income students to carry enormous debts upon graduation.

Instead of offering students the chance to receive an affordable education, this plan only allows students to dig themselves in to an ever-deepening hole of debt, and does nothing to help those students who have already graduated with loans or who are still in school but have already taken out thousands of dollars in loans. This plan does also not help those students who receive financial aid from a variety of sources other than subsidized Stafford loans.

This plan is also only a temporary measure. The interest rates would gradually decrease over the next five years to 3.4 percent. However, after only a six-month period in 2011, the interest would go back up to the original rate.

The plan would expire unless approved again by the House in 2011. So this plan will only help those students who take out subsidized Stafford loans after July of 2007 and no one else. And then it will only decrease the interest rates on those loans for five years and then they are right back where they are now.

Instead of helping all students who receive financial aid, this plan alleviates a small portion of educational debt for a few select borrowers.

Yes, the plan could help some students save some money in interest over the course of their repayment - but that's only if they can afford to repay their loans at all. Millions of loans are disbursed every year to millions upon millions of students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 69 percent of all undergraduates in public four-year institutions received financial aid in the 2003-2004 school year, 45 percent of which were loans.

Once those students graduate, they are faced with tens-of-thousands of dollars in student loans they must pay back to Uncle Sam. So while the Democrats are taking a small step toward helping needy students with the mounting costs of an education, they are not addressing the key issue - most students can't afford to go to college in the first place.

Glover brings badly needed focus to schools

Editorial

The Duval County school district is in trouble. The graduation rate for the 2004-2005 school year was 65.5 percent, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Education. That means four in 10 students didn't graduate on schedule. The dropout rate was 5.9 percent for the same time - that's a total of 2,414 students - indicating that greater than one in 20 students left school for good. And among the 126,535 that managed to stay in school, there was a total of 30,755 suspensions among them - or roughly one per every four students.

The conventional thinking goes that schools are understaffed, teachers underpaid and programs underfunded. Somebody ought just to allocate more money to schools - that would solve everything. The more wizened, informed critics in the field have been saying for years, however, that this just isn't so.

The real question is one of student motivation. Pay every teacher $100,000 a year and still there will be some students without any desire to learn or study or do their homework. It's a problem money clearly can't solve, and hasn't over decades of attempts - so what is the best way to approach the root of the problem?

The University of North Florida is leading a bold initiative into exploring that problem.

Based on the idea that what failing students really need may not be found in new school supplies, a set number of computers in art classrooms or more high-speed golf carts for security guards to zip around in, President John Delaney is suggesting the use of what may have been a key missing element up until this point: a role model.

If there's anyone locally who's lived the true rags-to-riches power-of-perseverance life, it's former Jacksonville sheriff Nat Glover.

Glover, a personal friend of Delaney's, is stepping in to teach Jacksonville students about the underlying value of a good education. He has said many times in conferences and interviews that, were it not for the education he took seriously when he was privileged to receive it, he'd either be dead or in jail today.

Is it a sure bet that Glover's influence will have any effect on the statistics? Certainly not. But he seems personally bound to the task and determined to do everything he can to make a difference, and if there's anyone that can do it, it's Glover - a man who's already proved he can shake things up and upset the status quo in any setting.

Glover's certainly got his job cut out for him - let's see what he can do.

Defining sex proves much is in the eye of the beholder

Student Opinion

Not too long ago, defining sex was pretty easy. Almost everyone agreed on the same definition - something akin to what one might find in Merriam-Webster's dictionary: "Either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures."

To get a more precise definition, I looked up sexual intercourse, which was defined as "heterosexual intercourse involving penetration of the vagina by the penis."

While Merriam-Webster's definitions are close, they do not hit the nail on the head for most of the meanings in today's society.

Many people credit Bill Clinton for this change in society's view on what exactly sex is. He, after all, did not think he had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky because it was only oral sex.

So what exactly constitutes sex, especially in a generation that wants to go but not exactly all the way? In recent years, terms like technical virgin and halfway virgin have entered the lexicon. A technical virgin or halfway virgin is someone who engages in sexual behavior such as oral sex and anal sex, but not in sexual intercourse.

But even intercourse has gray areas - I know a woman, for example, who calls herself a virgin because upon trying to lose her virginity she was partially penetrated with a penis but did not reach intercourse because it was too painful.

Then there is the area of gay sex. Are homosexuals having sex since there is no penetration of the penis in the vagina? Are homosexuals in a sense virgins? When I asked friends to come up with a definition of sex, they said it is when you give yourself to someone both physically and emotionally. So what about people who engage in casual sex? Are they not having sex due to the fact they tend to leave their emotions out of it? What if two people are engaged in intercourse but one person thinks it's casual and the other thinks it's emotional? Could one be having sex and the other not?

Although it may seem like this raises even more questions than answers, that is simply because sex no longer has one definitive definition. People decide what sex is for themselves - sex is now in the eye of the holder and the beholder. For the record, if you want my definition - if you can get an STD from it, it's sex.

Welcome back: SG has big things planned this semester

Student Opinion

As your student body president, I'd like to welcome you back for the spring semester. After speaking with many of you in person at our "Coffee with the Presidents" event last week, I know we are all excited about beginning a new year at the University of North Florida.

President Delaney and I began this semester chatting with more than 100 of you in our new student lounge over a cup of Starbucks coffee. I'd like to thank many of you for the encouraging words about our efforts to be accessible and informative this year. You asked about many of the projects we finalized last semester - like the student lounge, car wash and hot dog stand.

You thanked us for working with the library to keep it open for 24 hours during finals and for working with the bookstore to provide a test express lane.

I told many of you about the new DVD and game rentals at the library as well as the ground breaking planned for this summer on our new $45 million student union building.

I was also able to discuss our plans for this semester, and this spring will be even more exciting than the last. There are a number of our initiatives that will be unveiled this semester as well as information you need to know about statewide issues that involve every student in the state university system. As you have already heard, we are finalizing our on campus shuttle system and working to complete our skate park.

As always, I want to be your "go-to guy" and pledge to continue to be here to serve you. I look forward to working with you again this semester.

Tax credits crucial to hybrids' success

The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel Wednesday, Jan. 17. The only thing wrong with Congress extending tax credits to consumers of gas-sipping hybrids, which Toyota asked it to do this week, is that it hasn't done it already.

The credits are intended to jump start motorists' interest in the cleaner-air vehicles, and that's exactly what they've been doing. Toyota already has sold more than 60,000 of them - more than any other automaker. But full-credit allowances, which go as high as $3,150, end once a company sells 60,000 hybrids.

That's wrong. Yes, more people than ever are buying hybrids. But more still need an incentive to embrace the new kid on the block. Since Toyota started reducing the credits, the company has reported fewer hybrid sales.

Democrats now running Congress should do what Republicans there last year chose to avoid: Extend the tax credit for all hybrids.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

Letters to the Editor

Delaney: Where in the world am I? Right here

I'd love to talk about Shantal Voorwinden's recent opinion piece.

I try to pride myself about accessibility, although I suppose I can always do better. Perhaps that is why the column wounded me a bit! One of the advantages of the University of North Florida is the fact that it is an intimate environment, and that should include interaction with the president.

We have tried to set up vehicles to make sure that I spend time with students. I return every e-mail and call from students (and faculty) within two days. I go to any class when asked, if my schedule is in sync with the class, and speak to two or three classes every semester. I go to visit any student group that asks if I don't have a scheduling conflict.

I visit the Student Senate once or twice every year. I meet with the leaders of Student Government once a week on average. Every few weeks a student asks to interview me for a class assignment, and we do that in person, on the phone or via e-mail.

When I first got here, we tried to have a campus "town meeting" for students, and we only had a couple of students show up each time. So we are now going to try a coffee kind of thing (at Starbucks) every month to sit and meet students.

Every three or four weeks Mauricio Gonzalez, the vice president of Student Affairs, sets up a lunch for me with a group of students.

We have done groups of students who live in housing, with Greeks, with international students, with out-of-town students, with representatives from clubs. Each semester, we set up a larger "group" lunch of students who sign up.

I go to many ceremonies of student organizations when asked every month. I go to dozens of athletic events each semester. I go to Homecoming events and the orientation sessions. I generally eat lunch on campus.

Anyway, you get the point, but I get yours, too - I'll keep working on it. Next time, feel free to call before writing such an article - I may not change your mind, but at least journalistically you will have heard the other side.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing you!

Column misrepresents president's involvement in campus affairs

Although it is a pleasure to see students caring enough to express their opinions, I believe that Shantal Voorwinden's student opinion piece regarding our president's lack of visibility with University of North Florida students is, to say the least, inaccurate. In fact, it couldn't be further from the truth.

Although extremely busy as a university president, John Delaney meets on a routine basis with many campus student groups, including a scheduled session with AASU leaders coming up in about a month. He also has a standing meeting with Student Government officers to be sure he has his ear to the ground on student concerns that they are attempting to address. Just since the beginning of this academic year he has scheduled discussions over free pizza with student groups ranging from athletes and international students to fraternities and sororities, to name a few, simply to urge them to share how they feel about their experiences here.

In addition to these formal sessions, it is not uncommon for our president to be seen chatting with students while waiting in line at Sbarro, or at the campus hot dog stand, or in the courtyard at a table. I also understand that he has an open door policy for students with legitimate concerns, his e-mail address at UNF is public record, and he has even participated at some of Student Government's Midnight Breakfasts since I've been a student here, sacrificing a good night's sleep to be where students are no matter how late. I do believe that he tries very hard to be connected with our students, and in fact seems to enjoy it.

Many students have benefited from his fundraising efforts to increase student scholarships, as well as his lobbying efforts in Tallahassee that take him away from our campus but which have brought many enhancements to UNF including increased classroom space in new academic buildings.

It's my bet that if we are still fortunate enough to have him here in a few more years, he will continue to try to find ways to get us to slow down and talk to him.

Many more students than you might imagine have made his acquaintance long before crossing the stage at graduation and shaking his hand while holding their prized degrees in the other.

As president, Delaney is visible and listens - and way more so than most campus presidents, according to employees here who have worked at other universities. Not many other students can say their president has shown such care and concern for the students, their concerns and their interests. I am quite positive that Delaney does.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

Print Edition

DISCOURSE

Loan rate cut might cause deeper wounds

Editorial

Glover brings badly needed focus to schools

Editorial

Defining sex proves much is in the eye of the beholder

Student Opinion

Welcome back: SG has big things planned this semester

Student Opinion

Tax credits crucial to hybrids' success

Letters to the Editor

Delaney: Where in the world am I? Right here

Column misrepresents president's involvement in campus affairs

Spinnaker's Best

Spinnaker's Worst

Spinnaker's Fix

Corrections

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