ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Washington Hotline

Lynne E. Bradley

HEA reauthorization

The Higher Education Act (HEA) will expire in September 1997. The leadership of the House Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities (renamed the House Committee on Education and the Work Force) and its Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, Training and Lifelong Learning sent a letter to the higher education community asking for input and participation in the reauthorization process. Specifically, the letter asked for “proposals to maintain and expand access to higher education, promote quality educational opportunities, address the rising costs of higher education, simplify student aid and institutional aid programs, promote student academic preparation for postsecondary education, and promote savings for postsecondary education.”

A broad coalition of higher education organizations has organized task forces to consider current HEA programs, which ones are likely to receive serious consideration in the current political climate, and what changes the higher education community should jointly recommend. The American Council on Education coordinates this effort, which concentrates on HEA student aid provisions, plus selected other titles of HEA that have received significant funding in recent years. Congress is expected to continue its recent trend of not renewing programs with little or no recent funding history.

Consistent with this trend, the parts of the HEA Title II library programs that were continuing to receive funding (some research and demonstration projects plus a small amount of fellowship and training assistance) were included in last fall’s Library Services and Technology Act as part of a new national leadership program in the library field (along with preservation and digitization and joint library/museum projects). At the same time, HEA II was repealed, so it will not be among the parts of HEA in the reauthorization process, nor is it the subject of an HEA task force among higher education groups.

The ALA Washington Office has been monitoring or participating in task force meetings as appropriate, especially on the College Work Study Program, and expects to be supporting the higher education community in joint recommendations.

The American Council on Education (ACE) includes a list of task forces, their efforts, and contacts for them on its Web site: http://www.acenet.edu/Programs/DGR/ taskforces.HTML. Librarians are encouraged to call any or all of these individuals with ideas or suggestions for reauthorization proposals, or contact ACE at One Dupont Circle, Washington, DC 20036.

INTERNET II

The Next Generation Internet and Internet II represent a very important and evolving policy area especially for the academic and research communities. There have been many policy concerns directed to the limitations and strains on the current Internet and three related developments are being watched for increased congressional attention:

First, a number of research universities announced the formation of a consortium to develop and implement Internet II.

Second, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the expansion and redirection of its vBNS (very high speed backbone network services) program.

And third, President Clinton has announced a Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative (he mentioned this in his recent State of the Union address). The three efforts are closely related, although precisely how they will evolve and coordinate is still under discussion. The congressional science authorization and appropriation committees are likely to follow these developments closely. Whether any new legislation will be introduced is less clear. Internet II and the NGI developments are important areas for academic librarians to monitor and about which to inform other campus officials. ■

Lynne E. Bradley is deputy executive director of ALA’s Washington Office; e-mail: leh@alawash.org.