UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1983-11_Page-049

MINUTES GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE November 9, 1983 Present: Dr. Eilts, Mr. Aldrich, Dr. Pedersen, Mrs. Yost Minutes by Mrs. Yost Mrs. Yost reproted that she has. been working closely with the AUB Washington representative to gather support in Congress for an increase in the ASHA authorization and appropriation. Because there is not going to be a foreign aid bill again this year for FY 84 the foreign aid appropriations would have to be added as an amendment to the Continuing Resolution. The Senate Appropriations Committee had recommended a level of 25 million dollars for ASHA in sub-committee mark up and the House a level of 30 million dollars. The final figure would be resolved in conference between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Mrs. Yost offered cautious optimism about the Senate going with the House figure of 30 million(a 10 million dollar increase). The final figure would emerge by the end of the week of November 7-11. Dr. Pedersen reported on the FY 84 request to ASHA for 1.675 million dollars for air conditioning Ewart Hall, repairing AUC's most historic building complex, improvements for Wallace Theatre, Equipping the television news laboratory and microcomputer laboratory and computerizing the library's circulation system. Dr. Pedersen reported that AUC's FY 85 r~quest will be significantly larger at 3.4 million mainly for construction of a dormitory on the Zamalek property and new faculty housing. The hope is that AUC will , receive some matching funds from Kresge Corp. for about 1 million dollars. Dr. Pedersen reported that discussions in Cairo about the pound endowment so far have gone nowhere. Dr. Eilts offered to call Ambassador Veliotes before he leaves for Cairo and fill him in on the background of the pound approach. Dr. Eilts said that there is a precedent for using U.S Egyptian pounds for other than embassy costs; such pounds were used for the UNWRA camps. Dr. Pedersen reported that there is a trust fund for PVO's and charitable organizations and that AUC might qualify under this trust to be eligible for funds. The committee discussed alternative approaches to the pound endowment approach including ASHA and the ESF. If Dr. Pedersen cannot make any progress in Cairo with the pound endowment in the next few months the committee must begin to seriously explore the next approach to take