West Georgia Voices

At a time when student scholarships have never been more important and necessary to both students and their families, the university faces an economic hurdle along with hundreds of other institutions across the country.

Despite a long history of fiscal responsibility, the University of West Georgia Foundation, Inc. has experienced an investment loss that will adversely affect the ability to fulfill previous student scholarship commitments for the upcoming academic year.

UWG is not alone in meeting the financial challenges the economy has created. However, with 71 percent of West Georgia students qualifying for some form of financial assistance, and the state law prohibiting the use of state funds or tuition dollars to support student scholarships, UWG students will suffer exponentially in comparison to other state institutions of higher learning with much larger endowments.

“Although our conservative spending and investment strategies have previously allowed us to meet our scholarship obligations, due to the global economic situation, we expect negative endowment growth this year,” explained Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna, UWG president. “This has resulted in the need to quickly raise $100,000 in additional funds to meet our endowed scholarship obligations.”
           
“There are scholarship students here at UWG who will end this year with an outstanding GPA,” he said. “It will be a hard call to make to tell them that in spite of their exceptional performance we cannot fund them next year.  Many of them are not sufficiently well off to regard such a loss as just an inconvenience; indeed their incomes may be so low that it might cause them to drop out of school.  That would be a shame, to put it mildly.”            

“We sincerely appreciate the gifts we have received in 2008, and assure donors that the vast majority of unrestricted dollars (donations not specifically designated for other university programs by donors) will be used to support our general scholarship obligations,” Sethna said.  “If you are in the financial position to help ensure that West Georgia students presently on scholarship can continue their education, UWG faculty, staff and, most of all, our students would be very grateful.”

For more information or to make a contribution, email Dr. Andrew Leavitt, at aleavitt@westga.edu or contact the Development staff by phoning 678-839-6582, or mail a check made payable to the University of West Georgia Foundation, Inc. to: Office of Development and Alumni Relations, The Alumni House, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30118.

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