Appendix B: Explanation of Diversity Scholarships

The Development Office has designed a new form of endowed scholarship, called the “diversity scholarship,” for donors who wish to target members of specific groups, including but not limited to those based on race, ethnicity, national origin or gender.

The University in the past has accepted endowed scholarships that are limited to minorities or women. The donor carried out his or her intent to help minorities or women by instructing the University, in the “directive” section of the endowment, to award the funds only to a person in that class.

The diversity scholarship differs from this norm. The donor explains his or her interest in helping a specific class (race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or other class) in the “biographical statement” section of the endowment agreement. (In the “normal” endowment agreement, this section usually explains who the donor is and why he or she is leaving money to the University.) However, in the “directive” section, in which the donor instructs the university how to choose a recipient, the selection is not limited by the class identified in the biographical statement. Instead, the University is directed to choose the recipient based on grades, financial need, or other neutral, valid criteria. Although the donor wants to help a particular class, the University is under no obligation whatever to select any member of that class to receive the scholarship.

It is in the administration of this “diversity” scholarship that the University attempts to satisfy the donor’s intent. The University pools the scholarship with others that have the same criteria for selection and level of financial support for the recipient. It first selects the recipients for the pool scholarships, and then chooses which of those students will receive the funds from the diversity scholarship. If a student from the class the donor wants to support was one of the selected recipients, then the University is likely to (but again is not required to) award the diversity scholarship to that student. If no matching student is in the pool of selected recipients, the scholarship is awarded to another student. The University, of course, must explain to the donor that there’s no guarantee that the scholarship can be matched to a person in the specific class, but that it will attempt to make the match if possible. ¶