Kennedy School of Government (KSG) Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr., who sparked protests last month when he said alumni could only collect financial aid from the school for the first three years after graduation, announced Thursday that current students will be exempt from limits on aid eligibility.

Nye had previously said the school’s budget crunch would force him to cap spending on the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which offers debt relief to KSG graduates earning under $50,000 a year in public sector jobs.

Since the KSG established LRAP in 1987, the school has not placed limits on the length of time during which graduates can collect benefits. Nye’s move to set a three-year limit on eligibility sparked an outcry from student leaders, who responded by staging an all-night protest outside the school.

In an e-mail to students Thursday, Nye said that current students and alumni who already receive benefits “will be eligible for LRAP support as long as they meet the qualifying criteria that were in effect when they enrolled at KSG.”

In an e-mail to The Crimson Friday, Nye, who will step down from his administrative post at the end of the semester, assured that his as-yet-unnamed successor will honor the school’s commitment to exempt current students from the eligibility cap.

But Nye said he could only guarantee three years of LRAP eligibility to students who enter the school after this semester. “For the future incoming classes, the decisions will be made by the next dean,” he wrote.

Nye said last month’s move was necessary to level the school’s spending on the program at $200,000 a year. He said Friday that his most recent decision to exempt current students and alumni from the eligibility cap means he will have to raise an additional $50,000 from external donors.

“If I and my successor cannot raise the external funds to cover the existing students, the difference will have to come out of the [KSG] operating budget,” Nye said.

‘A PUNCH IN THE STOMACH’

Nye’s decision Thursday ended an emotional roller-coaster ride for some KSG students, who had intended to pursue public service careers but worried that the LRAP eligibility limits would leave them too deep in debt.

Erin C. Rogers, a student in the KSG program for mid-career professionals, said Nye’s March e-mail announcing the LRAP eligibility cap “was like a punch in the stomach.”

“I literally couldn’t breathe for a few minutes,” Rogers said.

Rogers, who borrowed heavily to attend the one-year program, said she calculated she would need to earn $80,000 a year to repay her student loans on her own.

“If this program didn’t exist, I would have to give up working in the nonprofit sector and completely change directions in my life,” Rogers said.

Rogers said she never earned more than $35,000 a year as an environmental activist in Texas. She directed a group fighting against a nuclear waste dump on the Mexican border, and later worked for the state chapter of the Sierra Club.