The Citizen

Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: KSG News

Media Credit: Sara Chute Members of the "Procrastinating on the Endowment Stops Today" (PEST) Committee march to the Dean's Office. [Click to enlarge]

Members of the Class of 2006 organized an effort to increase the funding of the Loan Repay¬ment Assistance Program (LRAP). This effort was given the moniker "PEST" (Procrastinating on the En¬dowment Stops Today). Leaders of this effort stated a "...lack of urgency and attention paid to loan repay¬ment, despite the Dean's continued pledge to make the school more affordable," in an April 30th email.

The campaign sought to divert funds from a budget surplus into the endowment fund for LRAP, a program that assists recent KSG alumni with student loan payments.

KSSG President Lisa George (MPP2) lead the campaign, setting an ultimatum: graduat¬ing students were to refrain from donating any funds to the Kennedy School, with the exception of gifts to LRAP, until the school provided ten percent of the current budget surplus to the LRAP endowment. George also sought to include the Class of 2006 in discussions regard¬ing changes in decreasing or in¬creasing the maximum income that students may claim in their LRAP application.

According to PEST orga¬nizer Andrew Stober (MPP), stu¬dent response was "...phenomenal, more than a third of the student body signed the PEST pledge and 30 students turned out the day of our meeting with the Dean."

Students leading the effort advertised their campaign at a table in the Forum during the Week of April 30th.

Dean Ellwood subsequently announced to students and faculty on May 2nd that twenty-five of the current budget surplus, $300,000, would be donated to the LRAP. Also, a $200,000 public service endowment was established for "students committed to working in public service."

Yet, Stober states that the PEST effort is not yet concluded.

"PEST is alive and strong...after meeting with the Dean, he agreed to formal engagement with students on an on-going basis next year, through a working group on LRAP, fellowships and financial aid," said Stober.

"Linda Adamson (MPP1) will be coordinating the student efforts next year," he added.

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