The University of Memphis is one of many Tennessee highereducation institutions anticipating a final decision from Gov. PhilBredesen about lottery-funded scholarships.
The recent clash between the Senate and the House over theirrespective lottery bills has delayed the decision, now pushed backto the middle of May, state officials said.
"We're in a waiting game," said Bill Akey, U of M assistant viceprovost for enrollment services. "This is very much on our minds,but we have no answers because the system has no answers."
With certainty lacking, the department is left with onlyprojections of what the governor's choice will be, Akey said.
The Senate recently passed a bill with the basic eligibility forscholarships requiring a 3.0 GPA and an ACT score of 19, hesaid.
"Everything is so hypothetical right now," Akey said. "But, weare looking at how other public and private institutions willreshape their scholarship programs. We're going to have to becompetitive for the high ability students."
Akey said enrollment services' main concern is the effect thelottery scholarships will have on the scholarships alreadyallocated by The U of M.
"With the budget cuts, we may lose some of our base budgetscholarships," he said.
Officials may decide to reallocate scholarship funds in The U ofM operating budget, if they are being replaced with lottery-fundedscholarships, he said.
"I certainly don't want that to happen," Akey said. "But thatcertainly seems like it might be a place to take out funds. If thebudget continues to get tighter then everything will be up forgrabs."
With budget restraints in mind, one reason state officials haveyet to make a final decision about the scholarships is they'rewavering between the $154 million House bill and the $193 millionSenate bill, according to Brian Noland, Tennessee Higher EducationCommission associate executive director of policy, planning andresearch.
As it stands now, the House bill suggests a $3,000 per yearaward for students with a 3.0 GPA and 19 ACT score. The Senate billrequires the same for eligibility, but it suggests awardingstudents $4,000 per year, Noland said.
Students who are currently juniors in high school should be ableto receive the scholarship upon entering college in the fall of2004, he said. Those who are now high school seniors can receivethe scholarship by their second year of college if they maintain a2.75 GPA their freshman year.
But, decisions are still up in the air and nothing is definite,Noland said.
"The Senate version has been approved," he said. "But the Houseplan is still a work in progress, and nothing is final until thegovernor signs the bill."
When a final decision is made, nearly 30,000 of the 50,000students graduating from Tennessee high schools each year willreceive a lottery-funded scholarship, Noland said.
The bills are nowhere close to making it to the floor, said MaryMorgan, Tennessee Board of Regents director of communications.
"It will be at least a couple of weeks," she said. "It's a bigthing. It's one of the biggest things the legislature is working onthis year. And it's complicated because there are so many differentpeople with different viewpoints."
