Since 2006, UCA gave scholarships not pegged to grades or cash need
Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008
CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas has spent almost $ 1. 6 million on publicly funded scholarships since the fall of 2006 for students who often did not have to meet any academic or financial-need criteria.
UCA interim President Tom Courtway said the program — which is legal — existed before his predecessor, Lu Hardin, became president in September 2002.
“We are taking a very hard and long look at [this program ],” Courtway said. “It’s something we need to review and are going to review.... We need to substantially reduce this,” both in terms of recipients and money.
Except for students who got these scholarships because they belonged to certain extracurricular organizations on campus, Courtway said, “There’s been no criteria.” Most scholarship programs generally have application deadlines and requirements for applicants.
He estimated that half or more than half of the awards each semester fell into the nocriteria category. Courtway said 56 percent of the awards, given to 172 students for a total of $ 366, 348. 56, are in that category this semester. No current athletes are among those getting these awards, he said.
Courtway discussed the scholarships, which totaled $ 1, 571, 156. 85 since 2006, on Monday and Tuesday in response to a request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
These scholarships of varying amounts might more accurately be called waivers, said Courtway, who became interim president on Aug. 29, the day after Hardin announced that he planned to resign Sept. 16 from the job after two months of contention over his compensation and other issues.
Among other schools contacted Tuesday, Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Arkansas at Monticello and Southern Arkansas University indicated that they do not have a similar no-criteria scholarship program. Arkansas Tech University did not have the infor- mation available Tuesday.
Henderson State University does have a presidential discretionary program. President Charles Welch said it provides the “flexibility to award students with extenuating circumstances.” He said the total amount of scholarships awarded in 2007 and 2008 was $ 38, 086. 87.
Courtway suggested that UCA has various options, including reducing the awards or even eliminating the no-criteria program. He said, however, that he could see some value in having such a program because “extenuating circumstances come up from time to time,” and some students can “fall through the cracks” in a family medical emergency, for instance.
Money for the program comes from the president’s discretionary fund, which Courtway said consists of public money. While Hardin was president, he alone authorized the awards, Courtway said.
Courtway acknowledged that he has granted some of these scholarships since he became president because he decided to honor any commitments that already had been made.
“Clearly it seems to me the better course is to have some criteria both for the award and the maintenance of the scholarship,” Courtway said.
He suggested that a university committee, rather than the president alone, should review such scholarships.
“None of this is illegal,” Courtway said. Still, he added, “There are going to be fewer questions about the awards” if there are criteria and committee review. “You remove a lot of questions about” who got the awards and why.
Hardin said Tuesday that the scholarships were not a matter of favoritism.
“In fact, the majority of the scholarship recipients I did not know,” Hardin said. “Many of them were international students. We used this fund to go from 203 [international ] students to well over 400 students.”
Hardin said that while he made the final decisions, he had input from several vice presidents.
Courtway, when asked how students would have known about these special scholarships, said, “I don’t know.”
Courtway said his two sons, both UCA students, got a total of more than $ 7, 000 in presidential discretionary scholarships one semester after he left UCA in December 2005 to work at Hendrix College through August 2006.
“It was something I didn’t ask for” but that they got, he said.
Courtway said that because of federal privacy laws, he could not release recipients’ names without signed waivers from them. His sons signed a waiver.
Kurt Boniecki, president of UCA’s faculty senate, said he agreed that criteria and committee involvement are needed and that such scholarships should be “very limited.”
“Discretionary scholarships shouldn’t be at the whim of the president but should be given out based on some committee’s decision,” Boniecki said.
“When there’s no criteria or any committee review, certainly questions arise as to why certain people got scholarships or not,” he said. “There’s the possibility of abuse and the perception of that these are given out as favors.... It stands to reason that people would have that perception” whether it’s true or not.
Senior Jared Caldwell of Wynne said he, too, thought there should be “more stipulations” on how such money is spent and that more than one person should make such a decision.
“That way you’re not handing out a pat on the back. If your friend’s child is coming to UCA, you’re not giving them money because you’re their friend,” said Caldwell, who said he has no scholarship assistance.
Further, students should know about such scholarships so that they can apply for them, he said.
Rush Harding III, chairmanelect of the UCA board of trustees, said Tuesday that he knew such scholarships existed but added, “I never knew that we had discretionary scholarships to the extent that we do.”
“I’m surprised the number was that large,” he said.
Harding said he believes “the awarding of scholarships needs to be based upon specific criteria that all students... should have access to be considered. I do think the president needs some flexibility... but not to the extent it was done at UCA.”
Harding said he did not realize the total sum until Tuesday.
“Obviously that’s money that would have been available for other uses,” Harding said. “The other side of the coin is, it potentially attracted some top students to the university.”
Even so, Harding said, “Whatever Lu Hardin did, I’m confident Lu felt like the best interests of the university were what he had in mind. I’m not saying the president always had good judgment in that. I think Lu was sincere.”
Hardin said that when he became UCA president, probably $ 100, 000 a semester was being spent on such scholarships. He said he increased it for a number of reasons, partly in proportion to UCA’s g rowth from about 8, 500 students to almost 13, 000.
Hardin also said he “was dismayed that [UCA ] only had 203 international students, and my goal was to double that” in the interest of cultural diversity. He said he has “absolutely no regrets” about that decision.
Hardin said he also used the discretionary fund to increase music scholarships because he didn’t believe enough was budgeted on the academic side.
Jim Purcell, director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, said Tuesday that he was unaware of these no-criteria scholarships at UCA.
“I certainly believe that there should be some process students go through to apply... where it’s open to everybody,” Purcell said. “If you didn’t have an open process, there would be an opportunity... for abuse.
“ In traditional campus management, you would have that go through the financial-aid office because they would be more aware of the need of the students,” he added.
Courtway told state legislators last month that UCA will survive its financial struggles with the help of a $ 6 million line of credit and a $ 3. 5 million advance on state funds. He has said UCA must repay whatever it draws on the $ 6 million line of credit by the end of the fiscal year and that UCA may need the entire sum.
UCA has been cutting educational and general scholarship spending.
Courtway this week released a copy of an e-mail he sent to senior staff members on Sept. 13 in which he said he wanted “to undertake a comprehensive review of the entire scholarship picture.”
In that e-mail, he also asked the staff to provide him with spreadsheet information on university-owned detached houses. He said he wanted to know such information as the house address, the tenant’s name, the terms of any lease, who pays the utilities and other house-associated costs.
“Also, I believe we need written leases on each property, with consistent terms,” he wrote.
Courtway asked for the information by Oct. 15 but said this week that he was still reviewing it. In the e-mail, he said that having such information compiled would “avoid us having to scramble around in the future if we are asked questions by the press.”
Questions were raised this summer about whether Hardin had given influential friends favors by allowing members of their families to live in UCAowned housing. Hardin has dismissed allegations of favoritism.
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