Sederburg Takes the Blame for Scholarship Snafu, Recommends Changes

08.19.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) State legislators announced Tuesday that incoming college students receiving the New Century Scholarship would get the full amount they had been promised.  And today, Commissioner of Higher Education William Sederburg took the blame for leaving many of those students in the dark for months, when the scholarships they had counted on were in danger of being slashed nearly in half.
“I’ll take responsibility for that. I mean it’s my agency and etcetera and we should have done that a little bit earlier. I don’t think we were hiding it, I don’t think that, you know, we were trying to fool anybody or do anything. I don’t’ think the significant issue is the notification, it’s the funding issue.”

Half of the students expecting the scholarship money were notified about the cut months ago, while the rest received the news only two weeks ago. Sederburg says that was partly an administrative error. Now that lawmakers and Governor Gary Herbert have stepped in to restore the scholarship to its full amount, exactly where that funding is coming from is still undetermined.

The scholarship reimburses 75 percent of tuition at Utah institutions for those who earn an associate’s degree while in high school. It’s increasingly popular with students, but Sederburg says its future is uncertain without a dedicated funding source. Meanwhile, students like Katherine Aguilera, a senior at Olympus High School, are taking college courses in anticipation of receiving the scholarship.

“Well I do come from a low-income family. So 75 percent of tuition is definitely something to work towards,” Aguilera says. “And it is a lot of sacrifice. I mean, going to school for four hours after an already seven hour school day is very exhausting. And then to come home and realize you have six hours of homework to do, really strains my family.”

The legislature has already changed the scholarship to a fixed amount, $5,000 per year, effective in 2011. And lawmakers are considering further changes to program.