Jeff Champagne, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada president, wanted to leave a legacy and help University students with paying for their education. In the March 7th senate meeting, the senate approved his proposal to create new scholarships and increase the current funding of scholarships by $111,000, which will be dispersed in the 2007 fall semester.
ASUN currently distributes $20,000 for scholarships and the additional funds results in a total of $131,000 of scholarship distribution. The money will be provided by bookstore profits and ASUN scholarship endowments, which have been gaining a surplus of interest.
The increase in funding will create 100 new scholarships, 50 of which will be distributed among the different colleges. Each college will receive five $1,000 scholarships.
"Some colleges have a lot of money to give out in scholarships and some have none," Champagne said.
The five new scholarships for the Reynolds School of Journalism will be named the ASUN Dean Cole Campbell Memorial scholarships, to memory of the dean who died in January.
The rest of the scholarships will be need-based which will be a great benefit to many students in financial need, said Crystal Jewett, an anthropology major.
"I always have problems getting scholarships because most of them are based on grade point average and not need-based," Jewett said. "People that need them the most don't have the required GPA because they're always working."
Other scholarships have been instituted as a result of the additional appropriations. The Tom Davies Scholarship, named after the former director of the ASUN bookstore, offers $10,000 for books. The creation of this scholarship was a way for the bookstore profits to be invested back into the students, Champagne said. The Mike Hendi Public Service Award, in honor of the former Campus Escort and ASUN security program Mike Hendi, grants recipients $1,000.
Champagne said he realized that the current amount of scholarship funding was insufficient in serving the growing student population on campus.
"Fifteen years ago that $20,000 was enough," Champagne said. "But it doesn't go very far now that we've got about 16,000 students on campus."
Jacob Martinmaas, a psychology major, believes the new scholarships could ease the problem some students have had with the changes in the Millennium Scholarship.
"The increasing requirements with the Millennium Scholarship make it difficult for students to pay their tuition," Martinmaas said. "The new scholarships can counter that problem."
Champagne believes the financial increases in the ASUN scholarships will continue in the ASUN government in the future.
"I think everyone will be more active on finding ways to fund scholarship dollars over the years," Champagne said.