ASMSU faces scholarship funding decision
By Zane McMillin (Last updated: 11/17/09 12:05am)ASMSU is looking into various ways to fund a leadership scholarship after finding its plans to partially fund the program with MSU endowment money would limit control on who receives the award.
The Spartan Scholarship Challenge, which matches $1 for every $2 spent on creating new endowed scholarships, was announced in late October by MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon after the university received an anonymous $10 million gift last spring. About $7 million of the donation was earmarked for scholarship creation.
ASMSU’s leadership scholarship was proposed in early October and was designed to award an unspecified amount of money to need-based students seeking to take a more active role in campus leadership activities.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
The group’s Student Assembly originally planned to pass a bill Nov. 5 calling for the scholarship’s creation, but last-minute information revealed that under MSU’s program, the group might not be able to manage stipulations for awarding the scholarship.
The bill was referred to the assembly’s Finance Committee, which will rework certain parts of its language at a Dec. 3 meeting before sending it back to the full assembly, Committee Chairperson Gonzalo Martinez said.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what direction we’re trying to go,” Martinez said.
The original scholarship creation bill called for the organization to commit $66,000 of its own money for the scholarship, which would mean $33,000 contributed from the university for a total of $99,000. The bill also calls on the organization to create an ASMSU Alumni Foundation in hopes of raising $99,000 more to fund the scholarship.
Martinez said the group is not opposed to MSU’s involvement in managing and deciding particulars of the scholarship. However, he said the group was told there are predetermined criteria for using the Spartan Scholarship Challenge’s funds that might negate ASMSU’s original intentions of including a leadership aspect.
“We’re still not sure if the leadership aspect is totally ruled out with the Spartan Challenge,” Martinez said.
Student Assembly Chairperson Kyle Dysarz said it is too early for anything definitive to be known about changes to the bill. He did not say whether the original monetary figures would change as a result of reworking the language.
“It’s an ongoing conversation,” Dysarz said.
The original bill gave the committee until June 13, the end of ASMSU’s fiscal year, to work with the organization’s comptroller to devise where to come up with funding for the scholarship.
Preliminary discussions from the committee suggest the representatives are uneasy at the idea of having the university involved in deciding provisions for the scholarship. At a meeting Thursday, committee members generally agreed it would be better for ASMSU to be able to create criteria for the scholarship and decide its recipients.
“I would just rather have something that we actually have control over rather than leaving it up to the university,” said Igor Shleypak, who represents James Madison College on the assembly, at the meeting. “We’re putting in a majority of the money.”
Echoing sentiments expressed at the meeting, ASMSU spokesperson Portia McKenzie said the organization wants to be involved in the selection process.
“ASMSU would like to have a hand in the selection process to assure that the most qualified student in need of the additional funds receives it,” she said.
Originally Published: 11/17/09 12:05am
GOOD ARTICLE
11/17/09 2:24amnice informative article, I am impressed!
student
11/17/09 2:28amOnce again ASMSU doesn’t deliver. I mean, at least we’re seeing some progress in terms of creating the scholarship.
I am very dissatisfied in that ASMSU wants to be involved in choosing who gets the scholarship. You would think that the University would want to protect the student body by helping out those who need it the most.
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RE Student
11/17/09 8:49amASMSU ALREADY offers over $36,000 per year for the need based RESPECT scholarship, totaling over half a million dollars thus far. The University gives that away without ASMSU selecting the awardees. Unfortunately, this arrangement has been shown to mean that essentially MSU takes credit for the scholarship and students such as yourself have no idea ASMSU is providing it.
student
11/17/09 10:00amWell, that’s the point. The reason of giving money to the University is to make it more powerful through the increase of resources. People give money to MSU to increase its endowment and to reduce its level of reliability on other funds, like state funding, that are not consistent over time.
It is very ignorant from ASMSU to not continue giving money to MSU for scholarships because, simply, it is not getting enough credit for those donations.
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RE Student...again
11/17/09 10:01amRidiculous. I’m sure you’re one of the first people to jump on the bandwagon when ASMSU is getting torn into by the State News. Yet here they are, doing something noteworthy, and they get crap about it! I am so sick of the crap they recieve. They do so much for this school, and the University gets credit for all of it, and they get left with they blame when something goes wrong. You all should be ashamed. If you think they are doing such a bad job, you should just get involved yourself.
student
11/17/09 10:24amYou’re wrong.
The State News is not right every time. Actually, it is wrong most of the times since these journalism students want to create sensationalism in their stories.
On the other hand, even though they sometimes make biased articles, they do expose some realities.
One of those realities is the lack of receptivity, innovation and action from ASMSU. We all know that, currently, the student organization that is supposed to represent the undergraduate student body at MSU is nothing more than a bureaucratic beast used by some students as a source of income and to use our money to bring their favorite artists to campus.
I am not saying that they steal money because I don’t know that (Actually, there was an article about a student who got paid but didn’t fulfill the office hours requirements since she was not in Michigan.
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KJ Green
11/17/09 10:47am“The original scholarship creation bill called for the organization to commit $66,000 of its own money for the scholarship”
I may be missing something, but where does ASMSU get its money? Isn’t it from student “contributions” (taxes)? Are the taxpaying students happy about part of their student tax dollars funding a scholarship when they themselves are struggling to deal with their own college bills?
If ASMSU wants to participate in a scholarship, let them create the ASMSU Foundation for outside funding as the article mentions.
And, if they want to control the terms of the scholarship award, set it up without matching dollars from the Scholarship Challenge.
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Uh...
11/17/09 10:59amStudent:
I dont know where in the world you’re getting the idea that ASMSU is going to “withhold funding” for the Respect Scholarship because it doesnt get recognition. No one ever said that and thats 100% untrue.
This is exactly the sort of problem where people who have absolutely no idea or only a sliver of information reach broad and overgeneralized assumptions based upon half-truth reporting and misconceptions. It’s no wonder that you have a bad view of ASMSU if you actually believed they’d take funds away b/c they didnt get credit. Never mind that the very notion is completely off-base and utterly false.
student
11/17/09 11:35amI never said anything about the Respect Scholarship. I’ve been referring to the most recent scholarship, the one discussed in this article.
RE: Student
11/17/09 12:18pm“It is very ignorant from ASMSU to not continue giving money to MSU for scholarships because, simply, it is not getting enough credit for those donations.”
The only scholarship this applies to is the Respect Scholarship. The other one hasn’t ever been finalized so funds cannot be discontinued.
Even if you were talking about the new one, no one said they’d not go forward, they just want to make sure they do it the right way.
student
11/17/09 5:35pmThe problem here is that ASMSU wants credit for something they don’t do because the life of ASMSU, the $500 thousand, are given by students. So, stop being selfish and just donate the money. If what ASMSU wants is credit, then improve the communications and advertising but don’t hold money and make a process longer for technicalities that will not save a student from not dropping out of school.
ASMSU is great in deviating issues and arguments.
SOMEONE WHO THINKS "STUDENT" IS STUPID
11/18/09 12:25amstudent, if you are just one person, you are making some stupid, ridiculous claims. You want ASMSU to donate the money now, but 1 it is not that simple i would assume and 2 it would not matter how fast they donate the money bec. the scholarships would not go into effect until next year anyways.
State news- band STUDENT for his stupid and recidivous claims!
Someone who thinks the above person is a moron
11/18/09 10:56amYou can’t even spell.
You want them to BAND him??? Do you think he is a lobster? Or should we look at this from a birdwatching perspective, and assume that you want to put a metal ring around his leg in order to identify him in the future?
Haha.
student
11/18/09 1:16pmSOMEONE WHO THINKS “STUDENT” IS STUPID:
Your post is by itself miserable. Now, I just want to clarify some things.
1. The reason that you give for that donating the money is not that simple is in itself an ASMSU issue.
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RE above
11/18/09 5:23pmActually, last time ASMSU asked students via a campus wide election if they wanted ASMSU to fund more scholarships, the vote was overwhelmingly no. That was back in 2005 or so.
I also note taht ASMSU put on the rally today that the Gov attended and has been lobbying the legislature. So, considering all of that i’d say they are doing something and getting the Gov to come to their event, which got barely any mention in the State News btw, is a great job.
Of course its much easier to simply complain instead of get involved or compliment good work isnt it?
student
11/18/09 6:30pmRE above:
1. The activity in which Granholm talked today is part of a tour that Granholm is having throughout colleges in the state of Michigan. ASMSU didn’t do anything special there. In fact, after MSU Granholm went to Grand Valley State and had a very similar activity.
2. You can’t compare the attitude students had on tuition and scholarships in 2005 with the one they have today in 2009.
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student
11/18/09 6:32pmThis is the article about Granholm’s tour around colleges in Michigan: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/7/0/1579004/Education/Governor.to.Campaign.on.College.Campuses.for.‘Promise’.
This is another one from The State News stating the same: http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/11/granholm_visits_campus_urges_students_to_fight_for_mich_promise_scholarship
Excerpt: “Following her visit to MSU, Granholm was scheduled to speak at Saginaw Valley State University later in the day. She also is scheduled to address students Thursday at Central Michigan University, Grand Valley State University and Western Michigan University.”
Truth
11/18/09 8:38pmFor the record:
1) yes, the governor is touring colleges in the state for the next two weeks, and kicked off that tour at MSU
2) the university administrators agreed to the governor appearing and president simon planned to attend as well
3) neither the governor nor the university planned this event today. the students led by cogs and asmsu organized all of the event; met with the communications staffs of the governor and the university,and ensured that the event didn’t just become a politcal stop over.
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student
11/18/09 10:27pmIt’s great that ASMSU had such initiative, but don’t blame The State News for not covering it. After all, there was nothing relevant that ASMSU can present that can actually affect positively or negatively the current budget situation.
What ASMSU has to do, and is capable of doing, is what those students don’t want to do because the University would take credit for something ASMSU did with money from the students.
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