DeKALB | A proposal made last Monday by the Bush administration would increase how much money students can borrow for college.

If the proposal goes through, undergraduate students could annually borrow up to $30,500, up from the previous cap of $23,000. Graduate students would be able to borrow $156,000, up from the previous cap of $138,000.

“This is the first step made by the Bush administration to help students deal with college tuition,” said Brent Gage, assistant vice provost of Enrollment Services. “Higher education associations are very excited to have this aid because this is something that they have been talking about and have wanted an increase on student loans for some time. But it could mean losing programs for students, so it’s hard to say if this is going to be a plus or a minus as of yet, regarding students.”

Some students haven’t decided if the bill would be a plus or minus, either.

“I’m not taking any loans out as of right now, but I plan on doing so for graduate school,” said sophomore anthropology major Scott Kirk. “The increase could benefit students or hurt them. The extra cash is handy when in school, but when you graduate you’ll have to pay it all back eventually. So, there’s going to be a lot of unpaid loans out there, which will hurt our economy.”