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Thursday, Sept. 14, 1995
That's why Citibank student loan have new, flexible repayment options.
BE INVOKED ME APPLICATIONS FOR
THE FOLLOWING STUDENT LOANS:
□ Citibank Federal
Stafford Loan
(subsidized and unsubsidized)
□ Citibank Federal PLUS Loan
(for parents of dependent students only)
□ Citibank Graduate
Loan Program
(for graduate students of all disciplines
- please indicate your field of study)
MAIL THIS COUPON TO:
Citibank (NYS)
Attn: The Student Loan Corporation
P.O. Box 22948
Rochester, NY 14692-2948
OR CALL 1-Boo-692-B200 and ask for
Operator 274
VISIT YOUR WEB SITE at http://www.loci.com
Social Security #___
You are currently: ☐ an undergraduate student ☐ a graduate student
You are currently □ an undergraduate student □ a graduate student
If you are a graduate student, please indicate the field of study you are pursuing:
□ Business (MBA) □ Medicine (allopathic and osteopathic studies)
□ Engineering □ Nursing
VISIT OUR WEB SITE at http://www.loci.com/HO/village/Cltibank/CSLC.html
CITIBANK
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Democrats vow to slug it out over student loan cuts
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Moments after Republicans on a Senate committee scraped together enough votes to make student loans more costly to borrowers, Democrats pledged another skirmish to reverse the outcome.
Even the committee's Republican chairwoman predicted her hardwon compromise will not last long.
"This is not easy. No one likes making these changes." Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., said Tuesday after the Labor and Human Resources Committee voted 8-7 to send the plan to the full Senate.
The issue has proved tricky for Senate Republicans, who generally
want to cover
from student
loans than
House Republicans. Under the
seven-year plan
to balance the
budget, however,
Republicans in the two
houses agreed
the amount
would be $10
billion.
The White House has strongly criticized that plan.
Kassebaum's plan also would lower federal payments to the banks and guaranty agencies that operate the guarantee loan program and make loans more costly for some parents. In addition, students would take on more interest costs
of their loans — starting to accrue interest right after graduation, rather than having a six-month grace period.
As protesting students hissed, Democrat predicted changes could devastate students struggling to make ends meet.
Other Republicans, although favoring cuts, dislike a proposed new fee on colleges and may try to eliminate it during Senate floor debate.
"It is wrong to rob student loans to pay for tax cuts for the rich," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., told students crowded into the committee's meeting room that changes are a small price to pay to ensure their children don't drown in debt from federal budget deficits.
Student loans are a crucial concern for middle-class parents putting kids through college. The amount of federally guaranteed loans jumped in recent years as more students attended college and tuition costs rose.
"This would dramatically reduce support for Americans who want to attend college," Lawrence J. Hass, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said after the vote. "It really makes no sense to try to balance the budget by cutting education."
Kassebaum's plan also faced objections from fellow Republicans. Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., supported Kennedy's calls for fewer cuts but, by not voting, allowed Kassebaum's proposal to move to the full Senate. Jeffords said he will fight the cuts on the Senate floor.
Kassebaum acknowledged they probably have the votes. Colleges have lobbied hard against the fee.
But few seemed convinced.
Nancy Kassebaum Senate Labor and Human Resources committee chairwoman
"You're not going to find many students who are against balancing the budget," said Chad Griffin, a Georgetown University junior. "But if the Pentagon can get more money than it asks for, why do students have to suffer?"
No cure for muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis found yet
Genetic therapy experiments fail
The Associated Press
BOSTON — In a sobering setback for gene therapy, two promising attempts to fix nature's inborn mistakes have failed to help victims of cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.
Scientists in recent years have found the genetic flaws that cause both conditions. They are among the most common lethal inherited diseases, and the discoveries led to speculation that soon there would be cures: Just replace the bad genes with good ones.
The new reports suggest it won't be as easy as scientists had hoped.
Neither experiment was a complete bust. Some healthy genes actually were transferred. But the gene therapy came nowhere close to doing the patients any good.
Proponents of this approach caution against gloom, however. They say that a quick cure is too much to expect in a field that is only about five years old.
The disappointing reports were published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In both experiments, researchers attempted to reverse inherited illnesses by giving victims the healthy genes they were born without.
People with cystic fibrosis carry a genetic flaw that results in thick lung secretions. This mucus harbors infections that eventually destroy the lungs. About 30,000 Americans have the disease.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina tried the approach on 12 volunteers with mild to moderate cystic fibrosis.
to reverse it, researchers created weakened adenoviruses — a form of the cold virus — that also contain a good copy of the defective gene. The idea is to let the virus infect the cells in the airways so that the cells carry the needed gene.
They tested it on the victims' noses, which have cells identical to ones in the lungs.
Dr. Michael R. Knowles and colleagues found that fewer than 1 percent of cells lining the airways accepted the transplanted genes. They estimate that to help victims, the gene transfer would have to be 10 to 100 times more efficient.
James M. Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania, a co-author of the study, said the strategy may work better in its ultimate target — the lungs — than it does in the nose. Those experiments are under way.
"It clearly is going to work," he said. "It's frustrating for everyone, including the families of kids with this disease, because we feel we are on the verge of a quantum leap. The question is how to do it the best way. It just takes time."
Nevertheless, he said, "this is a heads-up for a potential problem that nobody wants to minimize."
Experts seem less optimistic about the prospects for an entirely different approach tried on 12 boys with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, which gradually weakens and destroys the muscles. It and a closely related form of the disease affect about 75,000 Americans.
Ronald Crystal of New York Hospital, who helped pioneer the adenovirus approach, believes scientists can fine-tune the virus so it will reliably carry in the gene.
Instead of using a virus to replace a defective gene, doctors injected healthy muscle cells into the volunteers' biceps. The hope was that the new cells would fuse with the existing muscle cells, giving them the good gene they lacked.
The experimental treatment, called myoblast transfer, was conducted by Jerry R. Mendell and others from Ohio State University. After six months, there was no sign the injections increased the boys' strength.
"This finding, coupled with other previous work, basically tells us this just is not producing therapeutic benefit," said Donald Wood of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
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