FAYETTEVILLE — A $1 million donation for Access Arkansas scholarships by the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation is the largest in the program’s history, bringing total contributions to the low-income scholarship fund to $3.8 million.
The Fayetteville-based foundation announced the donation to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville program Monday.
“It is a rewarding experience to be involved in improving the lives of others and, by supporting this initiative, we are supporting the well-being of the entire state,” Debbie Walker, the foundation’s executive director, said in a news release.
UA officials initiated the Access Arkansas program in 2007 with a goal of raising $15 million over five years.
The scholarships are available for students classified as being in extreme financial need, said Danielle Strickland, spokesman for university development. Approximately 2,000 current students fit that criteria. Those students’ families are expected to be able to pay less than $6,000 annually for college, as calculated by data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
“We are wanting to help just as many of those as we can,” she said.
Development staff members are seeking $50,000 contributions, enough to endow $2,200 annual scholarships, which donors can target toward specific degree programs, Strickland said. Smaller gifts are combined into pools, with scholarships awarded by departments at varying levels.
“There are some benefactors who specify a field and others who leave it more general,” Strickland said. “It’s a very individual thing.”
The Walker donation was not targeted to a specific degree program.
The UA financial aid office estimates a year of oncampus education for the 2009-2010 school year costs$18,242 for an undergraduate student, including tuition, fees, books, housing, transportation and personal expenses, according to a chart posted on the office’s Web site.
Chancellor G. David Gearhart has identified needbased financial aid as a key to growing enrollment and retaining students.
An analysis of data from UA students who completed the federal aid application shows that the average funding gap for students who meet the Access Arkansas criteria expanded from $9,050 in 2006 to $11,770 in 2009, according to a university release.
The undergraduate class of 2009 left the university with an average cumulative debt of $19,439, $180 more than 2008 graduates, financial aid director Katie Wing told the Democrat-Gazette in April.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/22/2009