A Summary NYA Projects

Abstract

A T a meeting of the Senate of the University of Colorado a resolution was passed deploring the fact that student aid financed by the National Youth Administration may be abolished at the end of the current school year. On the strength of this, the University Coordinating Committee on National Defense and the University NTA Committee resolved to make a thorough study of the present NYA program to estimate its value both to the national effort and to the University of Colorado. The office of the dean of men, as the agency which distributes two-thirds of the jobs and supervises the entire pay roll each month, was asked to make the survey. A brief questionnaire was prepared and sent to each NTA supervisor on the campus together with a letter of explanation. One hundred twenty-five questionnaires were sent out; more than one hundred were returned. Information gathered adds new significance to the place of NTA on the University of Colorado campus. It is our considered opinion that a continuance of the NTA program here is not only justified but highly desirable; nor is it likely that our situation differs radically from those of other universities. Practically every instructor stressed the fact that it is primarily for the student and that many worthy young men and women would be forced to drop out were such aid abolished. This point is mentioned now, for a reading of what follows may mislead one to suppose that the University benefits far more than the student. One service complements the other. During the NTA pay period December i 6-January I , some 308 students were employed-207 boys and ioi girls. This distribution is in accordance with the student population, which is approximately four thousand and in the ratio of two boys to one girl. Since January I the monthly allotment has been reduced $ I,000, or to a monthly average of $3,520. Certain questions on the questionnaire could be answered by a mere figure or a single word. The ioo replies (25 were not returned and were thus not included in the computations) revealed the following facts: