2088                             Joint Resolutions

No. 24
(Senate Joint Resolution 18)

Senate Joint Resolution directing the State Scholarship Board and
the Maryland Higher Education Loan Corporation Board of Direc-
tors to meet jointly and seek the participation and assistance of
the Maryland Council on Higher Education and the State Depart-
ment of Education, to study the question of improving the existing
student financial assistance program in Maryland through a
greater dissemination of information to high school and college
students in Maryland of how their needs may be met through a
"package approach" and directing that a report be made to the
Legislative Council by July 1,1970.

The State Scholarship Board in Maryland is charged with the
direction and implementation of the various scholarship programs
in Maryland and is to be commended for its efforts in discharging
this obligation.

The Maryland Higher Education Loan Corporation is charged
with the direction and implementation of the Higher Education Loan
Program, and is likewise to be commended for the manner in which
it discharges its obligation.

However, it has been repeatedly demonstrated at meetings of the
Legislative Council Committee on Student Financial Assistance over
the past two years that much remains to be done in this field.

One of the greatest discrepancies in the field of student financial
assistance in higher education in Maryland has been the failure to
properly and fully acquaint high school students who desire to attend
institutions of higher education, as well as students attending such
institutions and who are in need of financial assistance to continue
their educational process, of the possible means by which they may
receive the necessary financial aid.

The State Scholarship Board and the Higher Education Loan
Corporation each disseminate the necessary information, and, at a
staff level, do cooperate in some joint effort to this end. However,
it has become apparent that not enough has been done in this regard,
particularly by guidance counselors at the high school level.

It is felt that an intensified joint effort on the part of these two
agencies, with the cooperation of the Maryland Council on Higher
Education and the State Department of Education, will result in a
better program of informing students on how to obtain necessary
financial aid to assist them in continuing their education and of
servicing their needs through a more comprehensive "package ap-
proach" to such financial aid; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the State
Scholarship Board and the Maryland Higher Education Loan Cor-
poration Board are directed to meet jointly to study the question
of improving the dissemination of information on student aid to the
high school and college students in Maryland; that this information
shall be directed toward a servicing of student needs through a
"package approach"; that these two agencies shall seek the partici-
pation and assistance of the Maryland Council on Higher Education
and the State Department of Education in this joint effort; and that