Students unknowingly excluded from grant due to first-year limitations

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Unclear language that left number of seniors unknowingly ineligible for the Grand Finish grant during its promotion created confusion on campus, but Grand Valley State University officials said the grant is now available to all students who earn 90 credits within their first three years in school.

Fine print on the scholarship qualifications states that the first class of recipients must earn their 90th credit in the winter semester of their junior year. Students who had already surpassed 90 credits, including students who had taken a significant number of spring/summer classes at GVSU or tested out of courses through AP or IB exams, were not eligible since they had earned their 90th credits prior to the winter semester.

That stipulation is not a part of the qualifications for students who reached or will reach 90 credits after Winter 2011.

According to information posted last year on the Grand Finish website, “Currently enrolled students who earn 90 credit hours by August 2011 and are within three years of their first enrollment at Grand Valley are eligible.” A press released published through GVSU News and Information contained similar language.

For students who did not receive the Grand Finish, the exclusion came as a shock, as the limitations in place for the first year of the grant were not widely disclosed.

Andrea Blanchard, a senior English and social studies for secondary education major, learned of the Grand Finish during a discussion with a roommate who had received it. Blanchard, who carries a 3.99 GPA and is a member of the Honors College, assumed her exemption was the result of an oversight at first.

“I initially assumed a mistake had been made and called the Financial Aid Office to figure it out only to find out that I had attained my 90th credit too soon to be considered for the award,” she said. “In other words, I was too well prepared to be recognized by the Grand Finish.”

Lynn “Chick” Blue, vice provost and dean of Academic Services and Information Technology, said it was necessary to leave some students behind in order to begin giving out Grand Finish awards to earlier classes.

“There’s always a risk in starting a scholarship program mid-stride, for the very reasons that we’re talking today,” Blue said. “Somebody gets it and somebody doesn’t, so we typically start with an incoming class, and that was going to be Fall ’10. Then there was quite a bit of pressure put on the idea guy, and that was the president, and he decided through a lot of wrangling that they could scare up enough money to start in Fall ’11 and include students who would have matriculated in Fall ’08.”

Read the full article at www.lanthorn.com.