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.