President Clinton met with President James Duderstadt and 10 other representatives of the University and Detroit-area academic community at the U-M Dearborn to discuss the impact of the William D. Ford Federal Direct Student Loan Program.

Under the program, federal loans go directly to the student via their schools rather than lending institutions. The transactions are made electronically, eliminating piles of paperwork. Approximately 300,000 students receive what are called Individual Education Accounts in the program this year.

The University is one of 104 schools in the nation participating in the program; the figure is expected to reach 1,500 next year. The program is reportedly expected to save students $2 billion over five years and a total of $4.3 billion for taxpayers.

Clinton said he supported the program because of his concern that young people "either didn't go to school or started it and dropped out because of the high cost of college education. Or because they either couldn't get the loans or they thought if they did get the loans, they would never be able to pay them back."

Noting that the U-M has played a significant role in developing and implementing the program, Clinton said that the program was "a tribute to the leaders of your institutions of higher education in Michigan."

This is almost a model federal program," Duderstadt said. "It saves the taxpayers money. It eliminates bureaucracy ...and it opens doors of opportunity."

The discussion also included Dearborn Chancellor James Renick; Wayne State University President David Adamany; and US Reps. John Dingell, William Ford and Bob Carr. Students who took part in the discussion were Erika Hodge and Kellie McElhaney, Graduate students on the Ann Arbor campus; and Dearborn undergraduates Stacey Tadgerson, Charles Tuzzo and Alex Vinson.