No longer will Harvard University be offering a year of free tuition to law students who go into public service after graduation. In an email to staff the Law School Dean Martha Minow announced to faculty and staff that the Public Service Initiative for future incoming classes would be suspended.

The university suffered tremendous investment losses and to top it off the university has seen more students than expected agree to go into public service. So the university is going to keep the program for current students "despite the economic downturn, but are not likely to extend it to future incoming classes" Minow wrote.

The program being cut was launched only one year ago . It waived tuition for third-year law students who agreed to work in public interest law for five years after graduation. The programs was currently set up to forgive $40,000 in a students tuition. And so far 80 third-year students have taken advantage of the program each year.

In a recent survey by the American Lawyer, approximately 40 percent of the nations top 200 law firms have reduced starting pay and 44 percent are considering cuts for next year. So this program offers a year of free tuition for those entering the public service. This is great because law firms are offering less money to first year associates and this gives them a different option. They can work for the government and get part of their student loans forgiven.

So this program helps students but hurts the university. And currently Harvard University has a $110 million deficit .  The school also saw their endowments which provide 38 percent of the schools budget shrink nearly $11 billion. As a result, they have come up with several ways to cut costs.

One of which was by cutting 275 jobs along with  programs like the Public Service Initiative. The losses this school and others have suffered has forced schools to try and slash their budget wherever they can. And this was one of the first things to go.

Here's a little bit of sunshine in the midst of the recession storm. Under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, students heading into public service careers can decrease, or eliminate altogether, their student loans. To mitigate the financial cost of schooling and the low pay in the public sector, the federal government will either reduce loan payments based on family size and income or forgive loans completely.

Those public service jobs aren't looking too shabby now, are they? Now that I've got your attention, the careers that will benefit from this program include military, volunteering, teaching, and legal or medical practice in under-privileged areas. Considering the stability that we currently see in these careers, this is definitely something to look in to. You won't be a millionaire, but you will have a job and you won't have to sweat over your student loan payments.

For all of the boring (but important) info on how this works, click here.