By University President Jane Conoley told past and present president’s scholars on Friday that the program will most likely have to change in order to address the funding and organizational concerns of the university.
“When I arrived … I started going through all the budgets, and I realized that in three years [the program will be] out of money to do what we’re doing now,” Conoley said. “Does that mean we won’t raise more money? We might.”
Around 50 students, former students and parents came together at a town hall meeting in the Anatol Center to tell Conoley about what the President’s Scholars Program has done for students and why they hope that it can remain in its current form.
Jan Schum, the parent of a junior in the program, spoke about how long her daughter had her sights set on being a president’s scholar.
“She was exposed to the program in sixth grade and put her sights on this as a special program,” Schum said. “An opportunity to really rise above. And I see that in her, I see that in her dorm mates, and the people in this room, and that’s where I don’t want to see this [program] diluted.”
The program was originally established in the fall of 1995 by former CSULB president Robert Maxson. The goal at the time was to try and attract some of the top students in California to CSULB. Conoley said this goal has been achieved.
“We don’t have that problem anymore, we do have other problems,” Conoley said. “Part of the re-envisioning is not to dilute president’s scholars, we’ll probably still have 20, 30 president’s scholars, or we’ll have 10, or we’ll have 5, depending on whether or not we are able to raise money. The problem I see for us now is that we have lots of high-achieving students.”
President’s scholars discussed a rumored proposal to fold the program in with the university’s Honors program. A few students at the meeting said that they had been in both programs, but dropped out of the Honors program because it did not meet their needs at the time.
Alex Hodge-Wallis, a President’s Scholars graduate from 2012, spoke about the difference between the two programs and said that the value in the program comes from the sense of community that the President’s Scholars program offers.
“I worked for the Honors program for a year and a half,” Hodge-Wallis said. “They are two very different programs, both culturally and academically. The Scholars program really is the foundation of our experience here, where the Honors program is an accessory.”
Applicants for the President’s Scholars program need to be qualifying valedictorians or National Scholars. Full payment of tuition, priority registration and paid on-campus housing are some of the benefits of being in the program.
Additionally, many of the current and former president’s scholars spoke about the opportunities that came about because of their involvement in the program, something that they don’t want to see go away.
“[My concern is about] not having the same opportunities that the future scholars will have,” said Dianne Asis, who was in the first President’s Scholars class in 1995. “The opportunity to have a full ride, and that it is not based on financial need, that it’s just based on academic performance.”
Those benefits pushed junior nursing student Amanda Martinez to apply for the program this semester.
“As soon as I heard about it in ninth grade from a previous President’s Scholar that was a family friend, I strived for this scholarship,” Martinez said.
President Conoley assured current president’s scholars that the promises that were made when they were selected would not be going away if the program does change.
President’s Scholars Director Valerie Bordeaux said that while there are many rumors going around about what the future of the program will be like, nothing has been determined yet.
“The president is truly authentic when she says that she has not made up her mind,” Bordeaux said. “We are in a process of re-envisioning. This is a part of the process – getting input.”
Throughout the town hall, President Conoley and other administrators sat off to the side, taking notes about the concerns that the scholars had addressed.
Hodge-Wallis questioned whether some of the changes that may be coming to the program have already been decided.
“I hope she [President Conoley] hasn’t, but part of me thinks that she has,” Hodge-Wallis said. “I think her overall message demonstrates that she has made up her mind to some extent. That she wants to make a face of hearing us out, but that ultimately certain decisions have been made that she is not ready to admit.”
Conoley said that she hopes that the changes can be minor but will depend on funding.
“I’m hoping, in my dream world, that we raise tons of money and very few things have to change,” Conoley said. “On the other hand, the organizational problem of having thousands of high-achieving students remains one of my important presidential concerns.”
Bordeaux said that no official changes about the program would be announced until November.
