They seem to have misplaced priorities

Just a note about the misplaced priorities at Washington State University and the $43 million the private donors gave to the university. Our daughter, in her sophomore year at WSU and majoring in journalism/communications has gotten straight As except for two A-minus grades. Her current GPA is 3.95, but she is still at the top of her class and is on the Dean’s List and honors list, and she has worked very hard to maintain this status.

She has applied for every grant and scholarship she could find available and managed to get a $100 scholarship from the Spanish Department, but this is her minor, not her major field of study. Both she and I called the financial aid, scholarship awards and her counselors’ office and discussed the issue of why she didn’t earn any other scholarship funds, all we got was a lot of excuses and assurances that more money would be made available.

Another thing I question: If WSU supporters gave $43 million and an additional 64 undergraduate scholarships were added, where did the scholarship money go? Our daughter should have seen some of this so-called additional funding. I see that WSU spent $2.5 million for the new Edward R. Murrow Communications building, and just recently gave football coach Mike Price a $100,000 pay raise – which he didn’t deserve.

It seems that if you are an academic and earn good grades, WSU has misplaced its priorities. If you go to school to get an education and you excel at this endeavor, your efforts should be supported by the institution. Our daughter has been in contact with other schools and has been afforded additional offers of scholarship funds, so at this point, and with the underwhelming response from WSU, she will be leaving there to transfer to UW or Western Washington University next year.

Monroe

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