Letter to the Editor: Mayor's Scholarships

To the Editor:

Penn truly should be congratulated for the progress it has made with the Mayor's Scholarships, which were created when the city farsightedly sought scholarships for its students in exchange for valuable land. You report ("The changing face of the Mayor's Scholarship," DP, 3/1/05) that Penn is now spending in excess of the equivalent of 125 full-tuition scholarships and that the recipients are now receiving no loan financial aid packages.

These are the two most important fruits of the lawsuit which ended 10 years ago and are significant changes from earlier policies. Penn, for example, was averaging only 91 such scholarships in the four years before the suit was filed. Some of the current excess may be, however, because Penn by your account is including students from the suburban counties. Judge Diaz, before he threw the case out on procedural grounds, reaffirmed prior law that only students attending schools inside Philadelphia could be counted. Penn, of course, is to be applauded for expanding the no-loan scholarships to other students just as long as they are in addition to the required 125 scholarships to city students.

You do not report how many students -- scholarship or not -- are now coming from the city. Penn had reduced that number to below 75 per class or 300 undergraduates in total and promised Mayor Rendell that it would increase the number to 500, out of the 10,000 enrollment. Has it met that important commitment to the community?

The key to the Mayor's Scholarships attracting and inspiring Philadelphia students is widespread publicity and knowledge about their availability to students who otherwise would think a superb university is out of their financial reach and do not even apply. It is disturbing, therefore, that there is no mention of the availability of no-loan financial aid packages to Philadelphia graduates on any Penn Web site that I could find. On the financial aid page under admissions, for example, the availability of Annenberg and Trustee and Leadership scholarships are identified, but not Mayor's Scholarships for Philadelphians.

The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia is proud of the changes that arose from its lawsuit. We are glad that Penn is now embracing the Mayor's Scholarships as the recruiting tool it was meant to be -- it can only be good for both Philadelphia's students and the University. Thank you for taking an anniversary look at this important issue.

Michael Churchill

The author is co-chief counsel of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia

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