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The Louisville Cardinal
1he independent weekly student newspaper at the University of Louisville since 1926
MARCH 30- APRIL 5, 201 0
Students find learning experiences
outside the classroom through
community service
By Billy S. Garland
The Louisville Cardinal
bgarland@louisvillecardinal.com
Since recently being named one
of America's Top 25 Best Neigh­bors
by the Coalition of Urban
and Metropolitan Universities,
the University of Louisville has
begun to pay a lot of attention to
expanding the student educational
experience to include community
involvement. One public speaking
course in particular is teaching stu­dents
not only to talk the talk, but
also to walk the walk.
"I didn't start the program,"
said communication professor Ma­bel
Sinclair. "Nonetheless, I feel
that this is something that should
be continued."
At the beginning of the course,
students were informed that they
would be responsible for complet­ing
a group project that would es­sentially
be an act of kindness or
charity. The groups were given free
rein to decide what form their proj­ect
would take, with the restriction
that it had to be charitable.
In past semesters, groups have
chosen various campaigns, from
raising money for children's homes
to visiting the elderly. This semes­ter,
however, saw a growth in cre­ativity
on the part of the students
involved, as one group elected to
put together a nonprofit adver­tisement
video for the Red River
Gorge Climbers' Coalition.
"The intent was to show rock
climbers how valuable the Red
River Gorge Climbers' Coalition
is to rock climbing in Kentucky,"
said Jordan Colburn, a junior elec­trical
engineering major. "They
do a lot for providing access and
are setting a precedent for how to
manage climbing access and land
management. They purchased a
large piece of property and set it
up as a recreational preserve. They
pay off the mortgage on render­grass-
Murray Recreational Preserve
entirely through donations every
year." Colburn said the aim of the
video was to demonstrate to climb­ers
why and how they should do­nate.
For the group, the video was
more than just a call for outdoor
enthusiasts and rock climbers to
donate to the organization. More
than anything, according to Col­burn,
it was about the experience.
"It was fun," said Colburn. "It
involved a lot of media editing,
climbing and just being out­doors.
Plus, it,helped a group that
helps keep access to climbing,
which is one of my hobbies. It
was done on fairly limited equip­ment
and software compared to
many productions, but the quality
doesn't detract from the message. It
shows a variety of the climbing
and community that the RRGCC
help keep working. Hopefully it
will lead to people realizing how
important donating is to keeping
climbing access."
While some students chose to
branch out from traditional av­enues,
other groups chose to get
involved with organizations closer
to home, like the charitable organi­zation
Blessings in a Backpack.
Blessings in a Backpack is a na­tional
nonprofit organization that
provides meals on the weekends for
young children who receive free or
reduced lunches through the Na-
SERVICE see page 2
Editorial 502.852.0663 • Advertising 502.852.0667
www.louisvillecardinal.com VOLUME 84, ISSUE 27 • 8 PAGES, 1 SECTION
Health care, financial aid reforms
designed to benefit students
By Michael Kennedy
The Louisville Cardinal
editor@louisvillecardinal.com
On March 21, the United
States House of Representa­tives
passed two pieces of legisla­tion
that will affect most college
students. While comprehensive
health care reform will create the
most enduring changes for college
students, the student financial aid
reform will have the most imme­diate
impact.
After the House passed the
Senate's health care overhaul bill,
it voted on a reconciliation bill,
packed with changes the House
wanted to make to the Senate's
bill. In addition to those changes,
the House voted on the Student
Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act,
also known as SAFRA.
The health care bill passed the
House by seven votes and the rec­onciliation
bill passed by 13 votes.
Louisville's representative, John
Yarmuth, was the only Kentucky
congressman to vote for either
piece oflegislation.
Yarmuth said both pie,ces of
legislation will benefit college stu­dents.
He said students could stay
on their parents' health insurance
plan through the age of 26, an in­crease
from the current age of 22.
"Of course, the health care bill
itself is a remarkable advance for
college-age Americans because it
basically says that now they can
stay on their parents' policy until
they're 26," said Yarmuth. "At an
urban university like Louisville
where you have so many non­traditional
students, you have lots
of people in that 22-plus category.
This b~,comes a real important
change.
Senator Jim Bunning of Ken-tucky
joined the rest of his Repub­lican
congressmen in unanimously
opposing both bills.
"Overall, this [health care]
bill is a recipe for disaster for our
country," Bunning said in a state­ment.
"It is nothing more than
a two-and-a-half-trillion-dollar
scam that will bury future genera­tions
of Americans under moun­tains
of debt. The so-called fixes
that were passed by the House last
night and will be considered in
the Senate this week only make an
already bad bill even worse."
Phillip Bressoud, executive di­rector
of Campus Health Services
for the University of Louisville,
said he doesn't anticipate any
changes to the health insurance
plan offered to students.
"We're trying to begin to feel
what kind of effect it will have on
university-sponsored msurance
plans," said Bressoud.
He said U ofL students already
cannot be declined for a pre-exist­ing
condition, a stipulation in the
health care bill that passed the
House.
"So far as we know, we're at
or better than what's going to be
mandated, as far as pre-existing
conditions," Bressoud said.
For uninsured students, U of
L's health insurance plan costs
about $2,000 a year and is open
to any student taking six or more
credit hours. Bressoud said Cam­pus
Health Services hopes to keep
the cost at the same level for next
year.
Leading the fight against the
Democrats' health care reform
bills was Mitch McConnell, Ken­tucky
senator and Senate minority
leader.
"Just one day after the presi­dent
signed this bill into law, we
got word that one of its celebrated
early features - a ban on dis­criminating
against children with
pre-existing conditions - won't
immediately protect children af­ter
all," McConnell said in the
Republican address on Saturday,
March 27. "Another promise, re­quiring
insurance companies to let
young adults stay on their parents'
plans up to age 26, turned out to
be similarly 'ineffective."
In an effort to reduce the costs
of the health care bill, Democrats
added SAFRA as part of the rec­onciliation
bill. It was approved
by the House in September, but
was never able to get the necessary
60 votes to pass the Senate. Under
the reconciliation bill, it would
only need 50 Senate votes to pass.
SAFRA received 56 votes to pass
the Senate.
Under SAFRA, students will
no longer receive financial aid
through private lenders. Most stu­dent
loans will come directly from
the federal government through
the direct loan program.
In the past, the federal govern­ment
subsidized student loans up
to 1.5 percent for private corpora­tions
who lent students the gov­ernment's
money. In addition, the
government guaranteed the loan.
Under the new program, the gov­ernment
will make loans directly,
reinvesting much of the savings
into Pell Grants which do not
have to be repaid.
"By putting everything on a
direct loan basis, the CBO-the
Congressional Budget Office­says
it saves 61 billion over 10
years, saves the taxpayers," said
Yarmuth. "And that's the mon­ey
that's going back into in-
REFORMS see page 2
It is estimated that over
$10,000,000 will
be invested in ·
college access
programs for
Kentucky over the
next five years.
©201 0 THE LOUISVILLE CARDINAL, INC.
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