When Adam Wayne Klunder was arrested in connection to a string of burglaries Jan. 7, University administrators couldn’t say whether he would lose the full-ride academic scholarship he claimed he had.
It begs the question: What does one have to do to lose an academic scholarship?
Michelle Holdway, University scholarship coordinator, said scholarships usually have pre-determined conditions that students must meet to maintain the award. Most often those criteria are a GPA requirement and credit-hour requirements, she said. Sometimes other requirements are attached, she said, such as community service or mandatory meetings with an advisor.
Conduct can play a role, said Holdway, but there is no written conduct requirement for scholarships. Any behavior where a student can run into trouble with the Office of Student Conduct could jeopardize a scholarship, she said, but it is never certain to cost a student his or her award.
Carl Yeh, University director of student conduct, said that even committing a crime does not guarantee a student the loss of a scholarship.
Yeh declined to comment on Klunder’s situation.
Yeh said his office can’t take a scholarship from a student, but the scholarship committee can.
Besides not meeting the specified criteria to maintain a scholarship, a student can have money revoked for committing scholarship fraud, Yeh said. This would involve lying to the selection committee in the first place, he said, and if the committee found out later, the student would likely lose the funds.
Privately funded scholarships, such as the University Presidential Scholarship, can give scholarship donors the final say in whether a student can keep a scholarship, Yeh said. However, it is unusual for a scholarship committee or donor to evaluate a student’s behavior, he said.
Yeh said scholarship committees should remember that every student is at a different place in his or her life, and that people usually fall short of others’ standards.
No one has the right to judge others, Yeh said.
Junior Corey Jacobsen agreed. He said that even criminal behavior should not necessarily cost a student a scholarship. As long as the behavior takes place off campus, he said, a student should be entitled to privacy from the University.
“As much as it may be disheartening,” Jacobsen said, referring to criminal behavior, there should be limits to the intrusion of school committees.
“Where does it stop,” he asked, “if your school can decide whether you’re a good person or not?”
Senior Noelle Neal said the idea of a student keeping a scholarship after committing a crime was “really weird.” She said the University is too lenient on students.
When Neal lived in the dorms, students who committed crimes received no worse punishment than having to change dorms, she said.
“All that will happen to us if we do illegal things is we’ll get kicked out of where we’re living,” Neal said, and added that it is the wrong message for the University to send.
[email protected]