One of UK’s more honorable scholarships recently received an extra boost from athletics, in a move that will quell some of its critics.
Too often UK athletics takes heat for the cost of facilities, the money it brings in and what it is dedicated to, and the priority it takes over the rest of the university. Moreover, most of the criticism is understandable, as it is tough to explain a highly-compensated coach, proposed new arenas and a new dorm to students as tuition incrementally increases, fees are added and dorms are in disrepair.
However, in this case UK athletics is making a substantial, much-needed donation to the Robinson Scholars Program — adding to the $1.2 million it gives to various UK scholarship initiatives.
According to a Dec. 1 Kernel article, UK athletics pledged $500,000 annually to expand the Robinson Scholars Program and other scholarships for students from eastern Kentucky. The Robinson Scholars Program, founded in 1996, serves first-generation, college-bound and college students who might encounter economic, cultural or institutional obstacles to four-year college degrees, according to the program’s Web site.
Provost Kumble Subbaswamy said the commitment from UK athletics would help increase the number of eastern Kentucky students able to enter the program as eighth-grade students and complete the college preparatory portion of the program.
It will also provide additional need-based scholarships for other Appalachian students.
“This gift from athletics will help ensure that when these scholarships are competitively awarded in the senior year of high school, the funds will be there,†Subbaswamy said.
Everyone wins here as a group of students is able to have the best experience possible at UK, athletics’ good-will gesture receives good publicity and UK looks like a university that cares about all of its populations. It doesn’t fix the imperfect system that prioritizes certain things over others, but the small steps count.
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