Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. The USAC Financial Support Commission’s Textbook Scholarship will be awarded later this week.
Later this week, 100 Bruins will win the lottery. Sort of.
Approximately 1,500 students applied for the USAC Financial Support Commission’s Textbook Scholarship of $250 to go toward the Associated Students UCLA bookstore. Recipients will be chosen at random and notified by e-mail later this week.
“More students applied for the scholarship this time than ever before,” said Rustom Birdie, Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Support commissioner, of the quarterly program that launched in 2008 and awarded textbook money to 200 students last school year.
Winners can use their scholarship, valid for three consecutive quarters, to purchase notes, textbooks and course readers with USAC surplus funding.
Although the drawing’s prizes are simple to win, the approval process for this quarter’s scholarship was rushed, USAC President Jasmine Hill said.
The program generated controversy at a recent USAC meeting, primarily because of Birdie’s efforts to change the way the scholarship is traditionally distributed.
In past quarters, the UCLA Financial Aid Office has divided applicants into three tiers based on their economic status, Hill said. Then, USAC commissioners selected an equal number of recipients from each economic tier, ensuring that funds were allocated proportionately to students’ wealth.
However, Birdie requested USAC funding for this quarter’s scholarship minutes after informing the council that he planned to instate a new lottery system, getting rid of the financial tiers and making the scholarship an open drawing from the entire pool of applicants.
According to Hill, this sparked debate about legality, allocation and whether the scholarship could indeed be dubbed a scholarship.
“The concern was to do with a dramatic change after a procedural error,” Hill said, adding that Birdie asked for USAC funds after having already publicized the scholarship to students, essentially obligating the council to fund the program. “Everyone left the table feeling a little uneasy.”
Before discussion ended, though, the council reinstated the traditional tiered distribution system to ensure Bruins with lower incomes will receive just as many scholarships as students in higher financial categories.
“It was my mistake; I put out fliers two days before funding was confirmed,” Birdie said, adding that he was mandated to revert to the former allocation system and is content with it for the time being. “But that didn’t change anything. I still got the funding.”
This funding, according to Hill, will soon ideally flow from a self-sustainable source as opposed to USAC surplus pools. But USAC will continue to fund the program each quarter until outside sponsorship is secured.
“We’re working with the UCLA Development Office to find a private donor so the scholarship will be self-sustainable,” Birdie said, adding that he is optimistic that an alternative funding avenue will open by early 2011.
The debate on the scholarship distribution is in progress, said Madhu Narasimhan, the Financial Support Commission’s scholarship director. USAC will evaluate the process after this quarter’s awards are allocated to determine if tradition or Birdie’s lottery is the optimal system.
However, all parties seem to agree that the scholarship is currently fulfilling its purpose, no matter what the logistics may be.
“I think we’ve worked out a fair distribution,” Narasimhan said. “The scholarship is intended to help middle- and lower-income students, so the (tiered) distribution system is pretty equal and fair.”