Florida Opportunity Scholars Breakfast - January 17, 2009
Good morning!
I know that most of you are University of Florida alumni, and I gather from your participation in this weekend's activities that you value your experience here tremendously. You must feel that UF, and being a Gator and a member of The Gator Nation, has helped shape your life in a rich and lasting way.
What I want to tell you about today is our effort to give that same experience to young people who might otherwise never have the opportunity.
We want to be a great university, with top research programs, state-of-the-art facilities and all the other hallmarks of quality. But, we also want to be generous with our undergraduate education and its power to give 18 to 21-year-olds a solid grasp of who they are and where they are headed—and the tools to get there.
Everyone deserves this opportunity, but it overwhelmingly goes to families who know its value, and who have the means to pay for it. This is understandable, but deeply limiting. Year after year, generation after generation, roughly the same class of people reap the benefits of what, after all, are meant to be public, with a capital "P" universities.
The Florida Opportunity Scholarship is the University of Florida's effort to realize the goal of opening this public system, not just to the traditional group, but to families and young people who never dreamed they could have it within reach.
I know that Gator Clubs and all of you have raised money for scholarships for years. I know that, thanks to your hard work and dedication, many, many students have attended and graduated the University of Florida. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your efforts.
Now, I want to make the case for Florida Opportunity Scholarships, and why the program is worthy of your commitment.
I understand that many of you value supporting students from your own cities, counties or regions.
With the Florida Opportunity Scholarship, we are asking you to do something different—to contribute to a fund for all students who qualify for the Scholarship.
While we can tell you which Florida Opportunity scholars hail from your county, I appreciate that raising money for a pool rather than individual students may be a cause of concern.
But, I hope I can persuade you that these unique circumstances are warranted by the program's unique merits.
Many of the volunteers and clubs here are already familiar with this Scholarship because you are already in the midst of campaigns to support it. But, let me just go over a few details for those who are not so familiar…
The Florida Opportunity Scholarships are available to any student whose family earns $40,000 or less and—here's the crucial part—who are the first in their families to attend college. It is not just a scholarship for tuition, but also room and board.
With this Scholarship, a student will be able to come to UF, regardless of his or her family's financial circumstances.
That turns out to be a game-changer.
Before the Florida Opportunity Scholarship, students from poor families may have been academically qualified, but they simply didn't apply to UF because they knew it was beyond their reach. We knew they were out there, but we never heard from them.
We have reversed that trend.
A few quick numbers: We started this Scholarship three years ago and have about 1,077 scholars today.
The average family income of a Florida Opportunity Scholar is $24,650. To put that in perspective, $24,650 is just slightly over the official poverty line for a family of four.
Moreover, we never had such a large group of these students before we launched this Scholarship. In fact, the highest percentage of UF students come from families who earn four times the families of the average scholarship student, or $100,000 annually.
So, the Scholarship is achieving its goal of increasing access to UF. But what's important to understand is that this Scholarship grants no special favors from an academic perspective. Our scholars meet the same admissions standards as all other UF applicants, and they are held to the same performance standard as all other UF students.
We always had faith these students could succeed here if only given the chance. Three years into the program, I am happy to say, all the evidence suggests that we were right.
Almost 96 percent of scholars enrolled last year returned this year, and almost 93 percent of scholars who enrolled two years ago remain enrolled at UF.
Not only that, but Florida Opportunity Scholarship students are academic performers! Nearly 65 percent of scholars ended last year with a GPA of 3.0 or better.
This Scholarship works on at least one other important level: It exposes our traditional students to peers they might never otherwise encounter. Meeting and making friends outside one's personal comfort zone is a key part of a college education.
If there is a drawback to this program, it is this: Florida Opportunity Scholars is very expensive. We have provided $11.45 million in scholarships total so far, including $5.67 million this year.
We are not able to continue that level of support indefinitely, which is why we launched a $50 million campaign late last year headed by football coach Urban Meyer and men's basketball coach Billy Donovan.
Everyone here is aware of the economic downturn and the immense pressures it puts on public institutions, businesses and families.
Of course UF is feeling this pressure—but if the Florida Opportunity Scholarship is needed in good times, it's absolutely essential in bad times.
Since 2006, we have raised about $5.9 million for this program. We are firmly committed to it, but we really need you to join hands with Urban and Billy in their campaign. With Urban and Billy, and you, and all our loyal Gator fans behind the program, I feel confident we can reach our $50 million goal and make the Florida Opportunity Scholarship permanent.
I want to close by briefly introducing the next two speakers, Florida Opportunity scholars Samantha Rowan and Chandra Spires. I have given you some facts and figures, but I think you will be interested in Samantha and Chandra's personal experiences with the program.
Thank you.
Bernie Machen