Baton Rouge, La.
Last fall when William “Bud” Davis, the
chancellor of State University, suddenly resigned his position in the
wake of charges that his office awarded nearly fifty minority
scholarships to White students, many educators and politicians around
the state sighed a collective relief that this most recent scholarship
fiasco appeared to end as Davis departed.
Louisiana is, after all, the same state where only four years ago
it was revealed that hundreds of legislators and local officials gave
tuition waivers — starting at $17,000 for two semesters — to their
offspring or close relatives to attend Tulane University. That
revelation prompted a furious public outcry that virtually closed down
the long-standing tuition waiver program.
But now a new scholarship scandal threatens to dwarf previous ones.
It concerns colleges and universities in every section of Louisiana,
and at least $82 million in state public student aid has been either
improperly awarded or bureaucratically mishandled.
“I’m sort of stunned by the extent of these findings,” Louisiana
House Education committee chairman Charles McDonald said upon reviewing
a forty-two-page copy of a legislative audit that surveyed only random
samplings of scholarships.
He isn’t the only one taken aback by the findings. The survey’s
author, state legislative auditor Daniel G. Kyle, repeatedly reminded
lawmakers that the problem is almost certainly wider and deeper than
his audit suggests. Another lawmaker on the committee said she was so
depressed by the findings that she didn’t even want to talk about it.
And Representative Carl Crane demanded more accountability, arguing
that those directly responsible should not only be disnussed, but
subject to criminal prosecution.
“For $80 million to $90 million dollars to be mishandled, I think,
is an embarrassment to the colleges and universities of our state,”
said Crane.
