While the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education has tried to protect scholarship money, one scholarship program has been cut in half because of budget shortfalls.
The cut will not affect current students, but it will affect incoming freshmen for fall 2003. Freshmen who are nominated by OU to the Academic Scholars Program as institutional nominees will receive $2,800 instead of the original $5,500.
The regents approved changes to the Academic Scholars Program last month for the institutional nominees -- a scholarship that used to be the race-specific scholarships for National Hispanic Scholars for Latinos and National Achievement Scholars for blacks.
The state regents had to change the language in the scholarship after a lawsuit. The scholarship now awards bright students and minority students who meet slightly less rigorous academic requirements than the National Merit Scholars, said Bryce Fair, associate vice chancellor for scholarships and grants.
Chancellor Paul Risser said the State Regents did not want to cut the scholarship, but because of budget shortfalls they had no choice.
"We have a high priority to not cut any more scholarships," Risser said. "I don't think we will be able to restore the scholarship this year, but we hope to in the future."
Fair said the regents would actually spend about $10 million on the scholarship, while they are only receiving $7.5 million from the state. The remaining funds are coming from a trust fund that currently has $9 million in it, but the funds will be gone in several years.
The cut comes at a time when OU is focusing on recruiting minorities. OU President David L. Boren said he cannot legally give scholarships to minorities, but he can increase recruiting at minority high schools. The university has put an emphasis on diversity recruitment, he said.
Boren said applications from blacks have increased 20 percent since the university started focusing on that issue.
Boren said the university still has a long way to go in increasing diversity.
Fair said the State Regents have not cut any financial aid and will continue to protect it.
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