Demand for scholarships exhausts
funds; all offers will be honored

The demand for scholarships to attend Arkansas State University next fall has already surpassed the funds available, according to ASU officials.

The scholarship funding for the 2003-04 year is the same as the 2002-03 year, but the demand for awards has increased. Officials have been processing scholarship applications for the fall semester for months.  Demand finally outstripped the available dollars. Those individuals who have received scholarship offers and currently enrolled scholarship students will not be affected, according to Greg Thornburg, director of Financial Aid and Scholarships.

“All outstanding offers, as well as those which have already been accepted, will be honored,” he emphasized, “and privately-funded scholarships and Future Delta Leaders Scholarships will still be available.” As for current scholarship students, no scholarships will be withdrawn or reduced.

“We are maintaining our scholarship funding at the 2002 level, although we have sustained more than $3.5 million in budget cuts in recent months,” Dr. Les Wyatt, president of ASU, told the Board of Trustees during a meeting today in Newport.  

The only scholarships affected are those granted on the basis of ACT score or a combination of class rank and grade point will be affected.  This includes the Trustees’ Scholarship, the President’s Scholarship and the Academic Distinction Scholarship. “This is strictly a budget issue,” added Dr. Rick Stripling, vice chancellor for Student Affairs.  “We have committed all funding designated for these scholarships.  

The university has committed as much to scholarships for fall 2003, approximately $6 million, as in the fall of 2002.” ASU, like other state institutions of higher education, has had to make budget cuts in recent months because of reductions in state funding. The most recent cut was almost $840,000; the impact of that cut has been felt throughout all campus operations, not just scholarships.

“We had to respond in the face of reduced state funding and reductions anticipated for  the 2003-04 year,” Stripling added.

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