This week, Student Council’s Diversity Initiatives Committee raised concern about the small number of minority students in the Echols Scholars program. Its proposal to bring greater publicity to the Echols application for first-year students is a possible solution to this problem; however its second proposal to add a financial component is not as practical. The Echols program is a merit-based program designed to give an academic advantage to those who have proven their ability to benefit from it. The University already offers merit-based scholarships, and the Echols program should not be turned into a scholarship program.
According to Associate Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts, “For minority students one of the top reasons they list for not attending is finances, whether need- or merit-based.” However, the University was recently rated the best value by the Princeton Review in large part because of the expansive commitment of AccessUVa to meeting financial need. Therefore no student should be in a position in which he has to turn down an invitation to the Echols program due to financial need. Many top minority students are offered merit scholarships by other universities, and this is part of the reason Student Council believes the Echols program is lacking in diversity.
The two greatest advantages of the Echols program are priority registration and freedom from area requirements, allowing students to pursue an accelerated course of study. It is unnecessary to combine financial and academic awards as the Diversity Initiatives Committee has suggested. Handler added that the program has been working to obtain research money for its scholars, adding a incentive to attend the University, but there is no intention to turn the program into a need-based scholarship.
The second part of the Committee’s proposal makes more sense. Richard Handler, director of the Echols program, said he has been working with Student Council and the Minority Rights Coalition to reach out to diverse student organizations and to promote the Echols program.
According to Handler, “Echols is competing for the most successful high school students. Each year it is getting harder to fill up an Echols class. This means we have more room to take on first-year students.” Roberts told The Cavalier Daily Tuesday that only 3 percent of Echols Scholars are minority students. This does not reflect the diversity of the student body, and efforts to include more minority students in the program are wholly justified.
The University’s strong commitment to meeting financial need makes a financial component an unnecessary addition to the Echols program. Outreach to minority groups is a sensible way to increase minority participation. Though offering financial incentives to minority students might increase the number of those students who accept an offer to participate in the Echols program, it would violate the purpose of the program. Students’ financial needs should be met through AccessUVa, and merit-based scholarships should be handled through designated programs.
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