Millenium Scholarship may run dry in 2015

March 8, 2010 by Leslie Ventura 

Student enrollment may decline after scholarship runs dryThe Millenium Scholarship is soon to run out, said Chancellor Dan Klaich during a recap of what he called the most critical aspects in the special legislative session, at the Board of Regents meeting on Thursday.

“Maybe of most concern to this board [are the] funds swept from the Millennium Scholarship,” Klaich said.

The scholarship is being cut short $10 million in order to make up for the state’s budgetary shortfall.

As of 2008, 77 percent of UNLV’s population is comprised of Nevada residents. Many of those benefit from the Millenium Scholarship, which is awarded to any high school student who meets the minimum GPA requirement and chooses to stay in-state for college.

In 2009, the Millennium Scholarship was enacted into law and has nearly doubled the number of students attending Nevada colleges and universities.

A student attending a university who is enrolled in 12 credits is eligible to receive a maximum of $960, a large portion of most students’ in-state tuition.

“We need to keep our eye on what the continued viability is for that fund. With the money that [was] swept out, I believe the viability will continue to 2015. In other words, we chopped a couple years off that fund.”

Without the Millennium Scholarship, many people fear enrollment in state universities will go down.

“It would be an interesting situation,” said philosophy major Hanna Teferi. “In the next year or so, my little sister is going to be in college as well. Being that my parents currently pay for my education, it would definitely be more of a burden for them if they did not have the extra help.”

Teferi explained that students would have to start working or take on another job to supplement tuition payments.

“These institutions have to make real cuts,” Klaich said. “The system has to look at real cuts.”