Some entering University freshmen for the 2006-07 academic year will have scholarships double the size of current scholarships.
Mary Parker, director of the Office of Student Aid and Scholarships, said three University freshman scholarships will be expanded beginning in fall 2006. The scholarship increases were approved by the LSU Board of Supervisors at the beginning of fall 2005.
The LSU Alumni Association (Top 100) and Centennial Award scholarship amounts have been doubled. The Top 100 award, formerly a $1,000-per-year award, is now worth $2,000 a year, and the Centennial Award has increased from $500 to $1,000 per semester.
In addition, a $2,000 stipend for study abroad has been added to the Chancellor’s Alumni Scholarship, the University’s most prestigious award. Only ten Chancellor’s Alumni Scholarships are awarded yearly.
“[The new scholarship money] really isn’t additional funding,” Parker said. She said Student Aid and Scholarships is budgeted a certain amount of money each year for scholarships. She said the increased scholarships are meant to complement the University’s new admission standards.
“It was an opportunity for us to put the University in a better competitive position,” she said. “With the money that we had in the pool at that point, we were able to go ahead and offer it to the entering class.”
But some current University students on the award programs are upset that their award packages will not be updated to the new dollar amounts.
Anthropology freshman Michael Rhea was awarded the Top 100 and Distinguished Freshman scholarships as an entering freshman for this academic year. He held a 4.0 GPA throughout high school and scored a 33 on the ACT.
Because scholarship award criteria has not been updated like the academic admission standards were, an incoming student with similar numbers could receive double what Rhea earned.
Rhea said the changes made him feel like “old news.”
“I think it’s unfair,” he said. “If we had been born a year later, we would have twice as much money for doing the same thing. Equal students shouldn’t be treated differently. It’s almost a form of discrimination to me.”
But electrical engineering freshman John Harvey also received the Top 100 scholarship, and he said the University is not wrong in its decision.
“I knew [the amount] was increasing, but I thought we were going to get ours increased too,” he said. “I guess it’s fair. [Student Aid and Scholarships] has the right to do whatever they want with their money, however they want to distribute it. They already promised us $1,000, and they’re not going back on their word.”
Parker insisted the University is not favoring its newer students over its current ones.
“This was not done to devalue the credentials of those who came before the [2006-07] class or to say that we value [incoming] students more than the students who are currently here,” she said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go back and grandfather the several hundreds of students who are already on this program.”
Michael Ruffner, vice chancellor for communications and media relations, said a lack of available funds prevents the University from making retroactive changes to current scholarship packages.
“When scholarships are planned and announced, there is a pool of money that’s available for those scholarships,” he said. “That pool of money is for the four years of the scholarship. There’s only so much money available. That is the reason we do not grandfather scholarships.”
Ruffner, who is working with Chancellor Sean O’Keefe on a capital campaign for the summer, hopes to increase the amount of funding for scholarships.
“What we’re going to be looking to is more scholarships and fellowships,” he said. “We want to increase the number, but obviously we’re at the mercy of the donors in terms of how much they support these particular scholarships.”
Rhea, who will meet with Parker on Friday to discuss his concerns, still thinks the increase is unfair.
“The only way that they justify it is because they’re bringing LSU to a more competitive level,” he said. “Wouldn’t giving students who already earned the award more money make it more competitive?”
Students awarded the increased scholarships will receive the money through their PAWS billing statements some time after the beginning of the fall semester in 2006.
 
Contact Parker Wishik at [email protected]