Last week at the Board of Governors meeting, Executive Vice President Zora Mulligan reported about an audit of our portfolio of institutional scholarships. While scholarships play an important role in supporting our students, they also serve as a strategic tool in optimizing enrollment.

Last December, we hired a consultant to work with a team composed of staff from admissions, financial aid, institutional effectiveness and finance. The goal was to determine how to strategically manage our scholarships to increase yield among admitted students, as well as overall enrollment and net revenue.

Ultimately, the team created a plan that increases the number of students we support with scholarships but also manages expenses. We’ll phase out some of our scholarship programs while increasing other awards to make them more impactful. Some highlights:

• We’re leaning into broad programs that serve low-income students and students with academic merit.
• We’re trying a couple of new options to encourage visits to campus.
• We’ll phase out programs that provide higher award amounts to smaller numbers of students and programs that no longer serve their original purpose.
• We’re updating scholarship renewal criteria to increase retention.
• Students currently receiving scholarship funding will continue to receive their scholarships through the period of their eligibility (typically eight semesters).
• Scholarships that are being phased out will no longer be offered to prospective students.

Thank you to the team that has worked so diligently on this project. It’s been eight years since the last review and our prospective students have changed quite a bit since pre-COVID times. From this point on, we’ll evaluate our scholarship programs on an annual basis.

Don’t miss Staff Appreciation Week

This week is Staff Appreciation Week! I hope you were able to join MSU Family Night in Mother’s Backyard last night. What a fun event. There’s more fun to come this week:

• Wednesday: Have a lunchtime treat with free Pineapple Whip on the West Mall. Then, share the love and appreciation for other staff on social media with the #MSUStaffShoutout.
• Thursday: The university is closed for Juneteenth.
• Friday: Cool off at the biggest staff party of the summer with treats from Chartwells from 1-3 p.m. in the Glass Hall atrium. Then, celebrate with early release at 3 p.m.

Thank you to the Staff Appreciation planning committee for organizing and planning these events.

Thanks for checking in. It’s a great day to be a Bear!

Biff