University of Idaho students may see an additional scholarship offer on VandalWeb this month due to a near 5 percent increase of privately funded scholarships, Executive Director for Planning and Budget Keith Ickes said.
“What we’re seeing is an increase in the coming year of aid coming from the University of Idaho Foundation,” Ickes said. “We’ve seen steady increases in the amount of aid coming from the university, but we’ve also seen fairly decent increases coming from the foundation — this year is particularly significant.”
The announcement of the increased financial aid comes in the wake of a proposed 4.7 percent increase to undergraduate tuition and fees for next year that will be voted on by the Idaho State Board of Education later this month.
Ickes said when donors decide to give a monetary gift — whether it’s a long-term endowment or a one-time donation — the University of Idaho Foundation collects the funds and distributes it back to the university. For the past three years, UI has received increased amounts of money from the foundation.
According to Vice President for University Advancement Chris Murray, the increases have been substantial and have produced more aid for students.
In FY11, approximately $5.08 million in privately funded scholarships was awarded to students, in FY12 it increased to roughly $5.1 million and in FY13 it increased to about $6.2 million.
The 5 percent increase for FY15 is estimated to amount to approximately $6.5 million of anticipated financial aid.
Ickes said the aid increases are largely attributed to the success of UI’s Capital Campaign, Inspiring Futures.
Murray said the campaign encourages donors to give private gifts, and aims to improve the student experience and the overall functionality of the university.
“We’re in a fundraising campaign right now to raise money in four areas basically — students, facilities, faculty and programs,” Murray said.
Murray said the $225 million effort and seven-and-a-half year plan launched July 1, 2007 and ends this December.
“This last year, $6.2 million of scholarship aid was provided privately, and that’s not the university making a wavier or giving some other institutional moneys — which we do– but this is purely from private gifts,” Murray said.
The $225 million goal is about 96 percent complete and Murray said it directly benefits students’ pocketbooks.
“It means there’s more money in the system for students to plug into relative to scholarships. So, we always worry about not only a students ability to come but the debt load that students are going to graduate with,” Murray said. “So this is a great asset for students who qualify for these and they’re all over the map — some of them are merit, some of them are need, some of them are for students from a specific region, some of them are for a specific major.”
Ickes said funds from the foundation are especially useful, because it doesn’t cut into the university’s operating budget — like other forms of financial aid offered by the university.
“It’s a positive to us in a lot of ways because it’s additional revenue coming to the university,” Ickes said.
Murray said the generosity of donors not only helps students, but the entire campus community because the extra support allows the university to allocate money to other vital operations.
“We can go over here and retain a faculty member, or to buy this new piece of equipment or to do something else that’s important to the university, because the No.1 priority is the students. But if you can get the private donor to pay for that, then you can save those funds and use them for those other things,” Murray said.
ASUI President Max Cowan said he’s happy students will receive more financial support this upcoming year and recognizes the work UI has done to make it happen.
“As a student, I think it’s really exciting that the university has seen such a large increase as a result of the capital campaign,” Cowan said. “This has a meaningful impact on students.”
Murray said students don’t always know where their scholarship money is coming from, but students count on it and can count on even more this year.
“The general theme here is that because the generosity of many, many, many donors, more students are going to get more aid,” Murray said.
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]