On March 1, in response to hearing from numerous impacted students and parents and a few lawsuits, the University of Iowa reinstated a select number of legacy scholarships for students entering in the fall of 2017. In their previous week, their decision to cut certain scholarships affected about 3,000 students. Despite the non-need-based status of these scholarships, much criticism was still directed towards the University of Iowa upon news of such funding cuts.
Bruce Harreld, University of Iowa President, thanked the people who reached out regarding the scholarship cuts. “The University of Iowa takes its relationship with students and alumni very seriously and wants to honor the awards previously made to those currently receiving these awards,” said Harreld. However, he also acknowledged the difficulties which will arise because of this action. Providing students with these legacy scholarships may solve current problems and criticisms, but the long-term issue of simultaneously dealing with a $9.2 million funding cut will arise.
The following scholarships, which were previously cancelled, made up about $4.3 million in non-merit and non-need-based aid: Iowa Heritage Award, Iowa Heritage Transfer Award, President’s Heritage Award, 2 Plus 2 Transfer Scholarship, and Iowa Community College Transfer Academic Scholarship. A press release from the UI Office of Strategic Communication stated the discontinuation of these scholarships for those students entering in the fall of 2018. However, they deemed it necessary to bring back the already-awarded scholarships because of students and parents who made educational plans and choices based on this financial aid.
“Over the past few days, we heard from many families who were unaware that these were renewable scholarships reliant on state support,” the press release stated. “Though these were never need-based, we also heard from families who budgeted for college based on these scholarships and feared financial hardship with the programs’ elimination,” the press release added.
Although these scholarships have been reinstated for this year, they will not be offered to any students for those entering in fall of 2018.
Bruce Rastetter, president of the Iowa Board of Regents, said, “Moving forward, if the state chooses not to adequately fund the UI’s five-year strategic plan, the board is committed to work with the UI to bring its tuition in line with its national peer group.”
While the Iowa Board of Regents has the power to choose tuition costs, it is the governor and state lawmakers who ultimately have control over the state funding.
Megan Murphy • Mar 9, 2017 at 8:22 am
I understand that they are trying to cut back on giving out so many scholarships because of money issues, but its not fair to the people who have already received those scholarships and get them taken away. Many people can only go to certain schools depending on if they get scholarship money since a lot of people aren’t financially stable in order to send a kid to college. Students could be set on going to the University of Iowa and were more willing because they were receiving money so now they might not be as willing to go there when they could possibly get tuition money from other schools. Some scholarships they were taking away were up to 8,000 per academic year which is a lot of money when paying for college because it is crazy expensive to go to the University of Iowa even in state.