Scholarship helps students come back to graduate - News at OU - Oakland University

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Scholarship helps students come back to graduate

By Katie Williams, contributing writer

Oakland University knows that all students aspire to earn a degree and celebrate the rewarding experience that comes with graduation. The university also understands that sometimes life happens and plans change.

Some students are short a class or two, and for whatever reason - financial situations, illness, a job, family crisis, or some other unexpected circumstance - are unable to complete the requirements for the degree they've worked toward.

To support and encourage these students, the Office of the Registrar has developed the "Don't Be Late To Graduate" scholarship, which is offered to students who have completed at least 80 percent of their major coursework to earn a bachelor's degree.

"This scholarship tells students that Oakland values the degree and your education. We care about you and we want to remove those barriers, whatever they may be, between you and graduation," said Registrar Steve Shablin.

Brittani Burroughs, the first scholarship recipient, was at a standstill just 12 credits shy of a Bachelor's of Science degree in Health Sciences with a concentration in exercise science when she learned about the initiative.

Burroughs has returned to OU and is currently completing those credits, and expects to graduate in December.

"To me, this scholarship means that my university cares enough about their dedicated students, to meet a need and help them graduate," Burroughs said. "It means that I'm one step closer to becoming the first in my family to earn an undergraduate degree. It's a blessing to be awarded this scholarship."

The initiative was developed by Amy Lindsay, graduation project liaison, and Tricia Westergaard, associate registrar. They collaborated with Oakland's administration and academic advisers to make the scholarship a possibility.

"We focus on the student's future success and everyone needs encouragement," Lindsay said. "We're throwing students a line to come back and complete their degree."

Westergaard estimates that ten percent of the roughly 3,700 students who apply to graduate are not awarded a degree. The sooner a student is able to complete that degree, the less likely it is there will be major changes in requirement.

"There's a limited window of opportunity, and it's easier to keep working towards graduation sooner than later," she said. "We want to help students come back to Oakland."

The deadline to apply for the Winter 2014 Don't Be Late To Graduate scholarship is Friday, Nov. 1. The application can be found, along with more information about the award and readmission to OU, at oakland.edu/comeback.

Oakland University is a vibrant academic community with more than 20,000 students and more than 260 degree and certificate programs. To learn more about academics, achievements, and events at OU, visit the news site at oakland.edu/newsatou and follow the news team on Twitter at @OaklandU_News.

Source: Oakland

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OU debuts competitive scholarship program

The fight for the best college students is like "hand-to-hand combat," and Ohio University will soon have an additional weapon in the fray, OU President Roderick McDavis said.

University officials recently unveiled plans to replace the Gateway scholarship program and to create $75 million in scholarship endowments by 2020.

The current system has worked well since its inception in 2005. But the program's rigid structure broadcasts its criteria to the university's competitors, which affords them a competitive advantage, said Pam Benoit, OU's executive vice president and provost.

The new program, which was developed by OU's Scholarship Task Force, will have an algorithm that will give prospective students personalized scholarship packages, said Craig Cornell, associate provost for enrollment.

"We've had more students say 'yes' because of the new (scholarship) package," McDavis said. "When we know where to spend our dollars, that makes a huge difference."

The program will apply to OU's next freshman class, with award letters detailing the program set to be sent to prospective students beginning in December 2013, Cornell said.

The university's scholarship taskforce, which started meeting last September, is revamping only the Gateway Program and is not touching specialty scholarship programs, like the Manasseh Cutler Scholars Programs, said Cornell, who chairs the taskforce.

OU spent $30,199,287 on scholarships in the 2011-12 school year, the most recent year available, spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said.

The majority of that figure is for undergraduates but OU does not break its scholarship awards down by grade level or campus, she added.

McDavis, Benoit and Cornell pointed to Bowling Green State University as a direct competitor for quality students. BGSU has dozens of scholarships for students with varying test scores, GPAs and abilities from different backgrounds, according to the university's financial aid website.

BGSU awarded more than $30 million in scholarships across the institution last year, according to the university's financial aid website.

The new OU awards - with a name that is yet to be determined - will allow OU officials to better tailor their scholarships to each incoming class, Cornell said. However, the program won't change OU's overall recruiting strategy.

"I don't anticipate a significantly aggressive change because I think our goal is to provide a quality education to all students," Cornell said. "(This program strikes) that balance between merit and need, both of those. ... What we're (working on) tends to be the bread and butter of a scholarship program for the institution."

Cornell said his goal is not to drastically increase the GPAs or test scores of incoming classes, but he believes the new program will let OU provide strong academic students with "a little extra assistance."

Coupled with the taskforce's work, the $75 million OU plans to put in place for scholarships over the next seven years shows an "exceptional dedication" to making OU affordable, Benchoff said.

"(We) want to create more scholarships for deserving students and for the university to make available that $25 million match, that's very uncommon," Benchoff said. "I can't mention another school, college, or university where (they) have taken that step to make that investment."

OU will contribute toward its $25 million commitment to the endowment as donors contribute to the fund, said Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration.

The university can begin spinning off the interest on donated dollars to students as soon as individual endowments reach their goal, Benchoff said.

"We do not have to wait until all $75 million is raised until we start giving out scholarships," Benchoff said. "As time marches on, that money will start to flow into the students' hands."

dd1957101@ohiou.edu

@WillDrabold

Source: Ohiou

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Trustees start new scholarship fund from millions left in university's surplus

The Board of Trustees started a new scholarship fund by allocating millions of dollars in university surplus at its most recent meeting last Thursday Aug. 29.

"The new fund currently totals $25 million, but Ohio University officials hope to increase that fund to $75 million with money from donors," OU President Roderick McDavis said at the board's retreat.

"We will go out and tell them for every 50 cents we put in, they'll put in a dollar," McDavis said. "Our hope is that we're able to identify some of our current scholarship programs as well as some new scholarship programs that people may want to contribute to."

At the board's June meeting, Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management, outlined OU's new scholarship goals to be implemented in the 2014-15 school year.

In Cornell's presentation to the board, he claimed OU's current scholarship model is clear but very restrictive and no longer competitive with peer institutions.

The new model will be more flexible and "determine student enrollment behavior based on aid received and their likelihood to enroll," he wrote.

"We're not interested in matching a scholarship program that's (highly) specific," Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit said. "We've designed the program to be very broad."

dd195710@ohiou.edu
@WillDrabold

Source: Ohiou

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