Butler University’s Student Government Association passed a resolution last Wednesday calling for congressional action on student Stafford loan interest rates.

The interest rate, currently at 3.4 percent, is set to double to 6.8 percent on July 1 when a program established in 2007 to cut back rates will expire.

There are 2,500 Butler students—or more than 60 percent of the student body—who rely on Stafford student loans,  said Melissa Smurdon, director of financial aid.

About 8 million students take out Stafford loans nationwide each year.

SGA President-elect Mike Keller, who drafted the resolution, said the interest rates don’t necessarily have to stay at 3.4 percent but shouldn’t increase so drastically.

“I understand if they have to raise it to, say, 4 percent, but my biggest concern is if they don’t come up with anything at all,” he said. “Double is a very sudden burden for people to bear.”

Smurdon said she is seeing more families hesitant to borrow money, which could affect how many students are able to come to Butler.

“As a tour guide, it breaks my heart how many people say, ‘I love this place, but how much financial aid would I get?’” Keller said.

Keller said he is afraid prospective students could cross Butler off their lists because of the cost and not get to experience all that Butler has to offer.

Because of political and partisan tensions in Washington, reaching a solution before the July 1 deadline may be difficult, Smurdon said.

“The biggest thing that we as SGA can do is be a vocal voice,” Keller said. “We have a bigger role as well, to make sure that we exert our voice into the political discussion when it’s going to affect our students.”

According to The New York Times, President Barack Obama is “planning a sustained effort” to combat the raise.

This includes a social media campaign on Twitter, using the hashtag #DontDoubleMyRate.

“In America, higher education cannot be a luxury,” Obama said last week in an address. “It’s an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford.

“We cannot let America become a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of people struggle to get by.”

Keller said he also received a letter drafted by other student body presidents seeking the signatures of 300 student body presidents nationwide to send to leaders in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to voice their concerns.

Keller said he plans to sign the letter once he assumes the SGA presidency today.

Keller said he will be sending the resolution to every congressman representing a state where a Butler student is from.

Of all the outstanding students at Butler University, seniors Matthew Miller and Carla Black were recently announced as the 2012 Most Outstanding Man and Woman.

Now in its 51st year, the Outstanding Student Recognition Program honors juniors and seniors who are nominated by faculty and staff on campus. The Most Outstanding Man and Woman, the Top 10 and the Top 100 students are recognized.

“There were more than 700 students nominated this year, which is amazing,” said Meghan Haggerty, associate director of student affairs.

“We actually had 101 award-winning students this year because we had a tie.”

Black, a senior music and Spanish major, said she is honored and humbled to be the Most Outstanding Woman.

“(Butler) is what has shaped me into who I’ve become,” she said. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t come to Butler. I owe so much to all the professors I’ve worked with.”

Black said she will be attending medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine in Bloomington after graduation.

She said she hopes to use her liberal arts education and open-mindedness she has learned at Butler to make patients feel like individuals, not just patients.

Miller could not be reached for comment by press time.

After being nominated, students have the option of filling out an application to continue the process. Haggerty said about 350 students filled out the application this year.

These applications are reviewed by two committees, both of which are made up of faculty and staff and two Top 100 or Most Outstanding alumni per committee.

The first committee ranks the applications according to a rubric and narrows the field to 100—or 101, in this year’s case.

The Top 100 are then notified to gather letters of recommendation for the Top 10 process.

A second committee of new faculty and staff then review the applications and letters of recommendation and narrow the choices to the Most Outstanding Man and Woman and the Top 10.

The Most Outstanding Man and Woman aren’t notified until the 2012 Outstanding Student Banquet, held at the Ritz Charles in Carmel.

Haggerty said for the 50th anniversary of the program last year, the program began filming short interviews of the students’ recommenders and playing them at the banquet.

“It’s neat to get that personal effect and that recommendation from someone who has worked so closely with (the student),” she said.

“You can just tell (the recommenders) are so proud to be able to speak on behalf of someone they’ve really enjoyed as a student.”

As course schedules are filling for next semester, financial aid is always something on the minds of students this time of year.

With tuition and room and board increases, most students want as much financial aid as possible.

For 2011-12, 28 percent of Butler University’s expense budget was dedicated to financial aid, totaling $47,672,800. The total amount of financial aid distributed was $102,928,535, which includes Butler funds, guaranteed student loans, state and federal aid such as the Pell Grant, and other outside awards.

“We are the largest source of aid for students that enroll here, by a significant amount,” Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management, said. “Unlike a state institution, our revenues come from our students, so we are able to distribute it as we need.”

Eighty-seven percent of Butler University’s revenue comes from tuition and room and board—all student-paid fees.

Vice President for Finance Bruce Arick said that financial aid comes from two separate “buckets” of funding: university expense, or unrestricted aid, and endowed funds.

He said a financial aid package starts with state and federal aid and then adds endowed and unrestricted aid to fill it up based on the student’s merit- and need-based circumstances.

“They’re dipping into both of the buckets to come up with the best financial scholarship awards that they can for each individual student,” Arick said. “The packages end up being almost customized to the student.”

Of all students at Butler, Weede said about 91 percent receive some sort of financial aid.

“We didn’t set out to have it that way, but when you work in a system that is tailored to each individual family’s circumstances and each individual student’s circumstances, each package is very much tailored to the individual that is enrolling,” he said.

While Arick estimated the average student aid package to be between $10,000 and $12,000, Weede said he doesn’t think about it like that.

“We have 4,000 individual financial aid packages,” he said. “When you talk about an average package, it’s meaningless because no one is average. We custom-build a financial aid package based on (a student’s) circumstances.”

Weede said he often hears from students at this time of year who have been offered more money from another school but want to come to Butler if the university can match the aid.

“Our answer is typically, ‘Good luck at that school,’” Weede said, “because we’re trying to create a match rather than buying people.”