Promise, Pledge, Hope
Christina Tompkins wants to be an elementary school teacher.
Thanks to an African American Incentive Grant (AAIG) and the Tennessee Lottery HOPE Scholarship, she is a junior at UT chasing that dream.
Tompkins, 20, was a 2004 graduate of Wooddale High School in Memphis.
“I was really excited about coming to UT,” said Tompkins, the daughter of Pamela Morris and Dwight Tompkins of Memphis. Although college was always in her plans, the scholarships helped make UT—her first choice—a reality.
Tompkins is not alone.
Thanks to the HOPE Scholarship, the Tennessee Pledge Scholarship and the Tennessee Promise, which debuts next fall, UT is becoming more accessible to students who once faced financial and other obstacles to attending the university. And that means more bright young Tennesseans, like Tompkins, will be able to attend UT and pursue their dreams.
Junior Christina Tompkins wants to be an elementary school teacher
A New Era
In September 2006, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced the Geier lawsuit would be dismissed.
The lawsuit, which dates back to the late 1960s, required the state to allocate money for desegregation efforts at Tennessee’s colleges and universities. Using Geier money, UT created the African American Achiever Scholarships and the AAIG program for black students.
These scholarships were helpful to many students, including Tompkins, and they were instrumental in helping UT diversify its student body, faculty, and staff.
About 15 percent of this year’s freshman class are minorities; about 10 percent are black. In 2000, the year before the current consent decree went into effect, about 7 percent of incoming freshmen were black.
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education recently reported that the black student population at UT jumped 1.9 percentage points between 2001 and 2004—the largest jump at any of the nation’s flagship state universities.
Although UT will fulfill the remaining years of scholarship funding for current AAA and AAIG recipients, new race-based scholarships are illegal.
Knowing the Geier consent decree would one day be lifted, UT has looked for ways to broaden its definition of diversity and has launched two programs—the Tennessee Pledge Scholarship, which began in the fall of 2005, and the Tennessee Promise Scholarship, which will be awarded to students entering the university in the fall of 2007. These programs, combined with the great success of Tennessee’s HOPE Scholarship, are designed to improve access to the university and help ensure student success. These programs will continue to help UT diversify its student body by focusing on students who might not otherwise be able to attend UT.
Chancellor Crabtree visits Stratford High in Nashville
Hope, Pledge open doors
The lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship program, started by the Tennessee Legislature in 2004, has encouraged high-achieving Tennessee students to attend a college in-state.
The HOPE Scholarship proves $3,800 per year for students to attend UT. To be eligible, a student must be a Tennessee resident, have an ACT score of 21 or higher, and have a GPA of 3.0 or better.
Virtually all students who are admitted to UT are eligible for the HOPE Scholarship.
Approved by the UT Board of Trustees in the summer of 2005, the Tennessee Pledge Scholarship guarantees academically qualified, low-income students can attend UT for four years without incurring debt.
Last fall, 189 in-state freshmen received the scholarship package. This fall approximately 250 freshmen qualified for the Pledge.
UT officials say the Pledge provides a special opportunity for students from underrepresented counties and for first-generation college students.
“It assures that able young people can come here irrespective of financial means,” Chancellor Loren Crabtree said. “Our responsibility as a land-grant institution is to ensure that all of Tennessee’s best students can attend the state’s flagship research university. Access to UT should be based solely on academic potential and willingness to learn. This program levels the playing field for every bright student and opens our doors in a way that we never have before.”
Statistics indicate the Pledge is making a difference in 15 counties whose students don’t traditionally attend UT. Officials have tracked the number of students applying and being admitted to UT from Bledsoe, Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Hancock, Johnson, Marion, Meigs, Morgan, Polk, Rhea, Scott, Sequatchie, and Union counties.
From 2000 to 2005 the number of students from those counties who were admitted went from 158 to 180.
To qualify for the Pledge, a student must be a Tennessee resident, come from a family with an adjusted gross income of $27,000 or less, and attend college in the fall, immediately after high school graduation.
Promise to widen reach
Now, in an effort to provide greater access to all Tennesseans and further diversify the campus, UT has launched a new scholarship program for graduates of high schools that traditionally send few students to UT.
The Tennessee Promise Scholarship program will provide up to $5,800 per year for four years when combined with the HOPE and other university scholarships. The Promise will be available to academically eligible students from a specific group of high schools starting in fall 2007.
About 35 high schools statewide, many in the Memphis and Nashville metropolitan areas, were selected for the first year of the Tennessee Promise. The schools were chosen because their students face financial and other barriers to college enrollment, and students from these schools don’t often enroll at UT. Racial compositions of the high schools were not a factor.
The list of targeted high schools may vary from year to year and may be expanded if funding is increased. The Promise Scholarship program is estimated to cost the university about $200,000 per year.
To keep their Promise Scholarships, students must earn a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and meet federal satisfactory academic progress requirements.
Crabtree said the HOPE, Pledge, and Promise scholarships will ensure the state’s best and brightest will be able to attend UT.
“In the post-Geier era, these scholarships will help strengthen the university’s outreach and its diversity by opening the university’s doors to students who might not otherwise be able to attend UT,” he said.
That’s important, Tompkins said.
“What I like about UT is the diversity,” she said. “I came from a majority African American high school. Here, at UT, I’ve gotten to know people from all over the state, the country, and the world. I’ve learned about a lot of different cultures.
“Because of that, I feel like I’m ready to tackle anything when I graduate.”
—Amy Blakely
