Athletic, Clara Luper and American Indian scholars no longer will be able to apply their scholarships to Cokesbury Court Apartments.
The Clara Luper and American Indian scholarships provide a private college education to students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds who demonstrate financial need, according to OCU’s website, okcu.edu. The scholarships provide tuition, housing and meals, but do not cover fees.
Athletic scholarships offer tuition, housing, meals, and university fees, but don’t cover other fees such as departmental or lab fees. The university fees are $115 per credit hour.
There are 98 Clara Luper and American Indian scholars on campus. Athletic Director Jim Abbott said there are 360 student athletes, but not all of them are on scholarship. He was unable to provide numbers for how many are on scholarship when asked Monday at presstime.
It is unclear how many of these scholarship recipients live or planned to live next academic year in Cokesbury.
Financial aid officials were unavailable Monday at presstime.
The scholarships will no longer be applied to Cokesbury, starting in Summer 2016 because the scholarships are discount by the university, meaning there is no money to back them.
“If you choose to live in Cokesbury Apartments, you will be responsible for the full housing charge and you forfeit the room portion of your scholarship,” according to an email to Clara Luper and American Indian scholars from Suzan Flipping, financial aid regulation manager.
Cokesbury is not owned by OCU. The apartments are owned by Campus Living Villages, a global company that provides communities where students can learn and grow, according to the website, campuslivingvillages.com.
Officials make annual payments to CLV, based on the number of students living there. The payment comes from housing charges collected from Cokesbury residents.
“When we are giving scholarships out there that are discount, then we fall short on the amount that we pay Campus Living Villages,” said Kevin Windholz, vice president for enrollment management. “Since we are having to pay hard money to Campus Living Villages, we can’t afford people to be living there on discount.”
Dr. Liz Donnelly, former interim vice president for student affairs, recommended the change. Donnelly later became senior director of university housing before retiring Oct. 9. Visit MediaOCU.com for more on Donnelly’s retirement.
Dr. Amy Ayres, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said, although the decision was made before she took over the role, she supports it.
“When revenue is minimized due to scholarships being applied, it is critical that room rates are backed by real dollars,” Ayres said.
One student said she did not understand the change.
“I don’t fully understand why they are doing it,” said Erica Herman, cell and molecular biology sophomore and American Indian scholar. “They just told us they were changing it, but they didn’t tell us why,”
The scholarships still can be applied to all other campus housing.
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