Davis launches merit scholarship program
m
University hopes top students
will play if their way is payed
By John Healy
Of ttw Emerald
Imagine a great hand scoop
ing up all of the high school
seniors in the land with grade
point averages of better than
3.5 and Scholastic Aptitude
Test scores of above 620 in
math and English.
First the hand sweeps east,
pouring the eight Ivy League
schools their allotment,
enough to fill its freshman
classes.
Then the hand moves west
to Stanford and begins filling
its freshman class.
And then the hand stops.
It's empty.
Those schools without an
allotment of top students in
clude blue-ribbon MIT, Cal
Tech and every public univer
sity in the nation, including
the University.
Jim Buch, University admis
sions director, came to that
realization in 1980 when he
and another West Coast
University admissions director
sat down together at a
conference.
But even more worrisome to
Buch was the knowledge that
his fanciful scenario of who
gets how many top students
was incredibly accurate.
Private schools like Stan
ford and the Ivy League univer
sities really did get an unequal
share of the nation’s top
scholars.
But they may not any more,
thanks to a merit scholarship
program suggested by
Chancellor Bud Davis and im
plemented in some form by all
of the public colleges and
universities in the state.
The program is modeled on
one implemented by Davis at
the University of New Mexico,
where he was president before
accepting the chancellor’s
position in Oregon last July.
The program includes
scholarships for outstanding
high school graduates from
Oregon and around the nation.
It also includes a housing
waiver and textbook credit
(see related story).
The University has taken to
the program with a vengeance
— 50 $1,000 Presidential
Scholarships have already
been awarded to Oregon
residents, each renewable up
to four years if the scholars
maintain strong academic
records.
“The idea is to go to bright
kids and explain that we can
offer them an education of
comparable quality,” says
University Pres. Paul Olum.
“It’s a good idea we should
have done a long time ago.”
Amy Young, valedictorian at
North Eugene High School
V
Amy Young, one of 16 scholarship winners
from Lane County, and the valedictorion this
year at North Eugene High School, says the
University “doesn't blow its own horn."
Photos by Mark Pynes
Scholarship winner Shelly Usedon of Thurston
High School in Springfield says "other schools
are pulling us out because they have the
money.”
and one of 16 Presidential
scholars from Lane County,
couldn't agree more.
“I really felt they needed to
do something to attract top
students,” she explains. “A lot
of the time, the University of
Oregon doesn’t blow its own
horn.”
Shawn Buystedt has seen
the results of that at Thurston
High School "I know a lot of
top-notch people who went
out of state,” says Buystedt,
‘Excellence’ campaign nets awards
By John Healy
Of th* Emerald
As many as 200 University students will
get an early Christmas present this fall from
the University because of a recently im
plemented statewide scholarship program.
The University will split $130,000 in new
merit scholarship funds among 100 Oregon
residents and 100 non-residents.
The money follows on the heels of a
$50,000 Presidential Scholarship program
announced by University Pres. Paul Olum in
early June.
The new scholarship money is the
result of a statewide higher education "Cam
paign for Excellence" began by Chancellor
Bud Davis earlier this year
Besides the 50 $1,000 presidential
scholarships, beginning fall term the Univer
sity will also award:
• One hundred non-resident merit scholar
ships of $1,000. All new non-resident
transfer and undergraduate students are
eligible.
• Fifty residence hall awards of $500 each.
These will be awarded to the 50 Presidential
Scholarship runners-up.
• Fifty $100 textbook awards offered to
students who applied for the presidential
scholarship program but didn't finish in the
top 100.
The non-resident scholarships are part
of a statewide program designed to stem the
decline in out-of-state student enrollment,
according to Davis.
Once the awards are implemented
statewide, merit scholarship funds will rise
from 1 percent of all financial aid awarded in
1981-82 to 2.5 percent this year
“That’s not too high a figure," Davis
says.
Non-resident freshman enrollment
declined 32 percent from 1981 to 1982
among the state's institutions of higher
education.
The University’s decline in non-resident
freshman was 25 percent during the same
period, according to Jim Buch, University ad
missions director
The scholarship program is aimed at at
tracting non resident students "who haven't
been attracted before," Buch says.
"We want to offer those good students
a carrot,” he says.
The $1,000 scholarships will be awarded
to non-residents students who will be enroll
ed at the University for their first term this
fall.
who edited her school
newspaper.
One of her classmates
recently accepted a $2,000-a
year scholarship from Ran
dolph Macon College in
Virginia, renewable up to four
years.
"Virginia offered out-of
state scholarship money,”
points out Buystedt, while
Oregon was just beginning to
offer scholarship money to
resident students.
"Other states are pulling us
out because they have the
money,” she says.
Buch agrees, pointing out
that a much larger percentage
of the state’s top students are
leaving now than in 1975.
It’s a combination of the
rusty wheels of public higher
education and the laws of sup
ply and demand
"We’re part of a state
system," Olum points out,
"and it's kind of hard to strike
out on your own."
So the University waited un
til Davis unveiled the first part
of his program earlier this
year.
Davis' program is also par
tially the result of economic
necessity, Buch says.
"The 18-year-old pool of
students is shrinking," says
Buch, pointing to a plunging
graph line, "and the private
schools see the supply and de
mand problem."
But now that the state —
and the University — are
counterattacking, Buch is
hopeful the brain drain will be
stemmed.
The new Presidential
Scholarships are aimed at en
couraging good students to
stay in Oregon and develop,
Buch says.
“We want them to take a
longer look, and realize they
have a real bargain here," he
says.
Olum notes that a Presiden
tial Scholarship winner will on
ly pay $350 in tuition next yea^t
because of the $1,000 award^P
But that’s not the only
bargain, Olum says.
“We can offer an education
of comparable quality for
$6,000, $7,000 or $8,000 a year
less" as compared to private
univerisities, he says.
“I'm not claiming that we
have the Nobel prize winners
that Cal Tech does, but we can
give a top-notch education in
the sciences because we have
a top-notch faculty," he says.
Quality is a word Olum
keeps using when he talks
about attracting top students:
The quality of the University’s
science departments, of the
faculty, of the research at th^fe
University.
“We aspire to be a certain
kind of institution," he says,
explaining that the Univer
sity’s mission is to be a “high
level scholarly and teaching
institution."
Olum points to the Univer
sity’s credentials as a
measure of its quality. It was
recently picked as the best
higher education research
facility in the state; seven of
eight of the state’s acting Na
tional Academy of Science
members teach at the Univer
sity; the University ranked
16th nationally in Guggenheim
Continued on Page 9
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