People have spent the past few days filling this paper with complaints about the budget cuts. Admittedly, the cuts are controversial and probably imperfect, but you have to make sacrifices when there's no money available. For those of us who are already here, there's not much to do other than accept it.
The university has another problem, though. With disemboweled departments, pitiful course offerings and rising tuition, how does it attract high-quality students?
The answer - merit-based scholarships - has become a four-letter word among social-justice-craving academics.
Need-based aid has a solid place at all universities and helps students, who may not otherwise be able to attend, get the education they deserve. Unfortunately, it usually does nothing to attract the most qualified students - the students who often go on to become scholarship winners, public leaders and wealthy alumni donors who bring prestige to the university. Even those highly qualified students who are eligible for ample need-based aid may receive better merit-based offers elsewhere.
UF got by for a long time by offering those quality students the best education in the state at minimal cost. But as the quality of education goes down and cost goes up in the wake of budget cuts, UF must expand merit-based aid.
UF's current merit aid programs include the National Merit Scholarship - a relatively insignificant $1,000 per year to students who performed well on the PSAT - the John V. Lombardi Scholarship and Davis United World College Scholars Program, both incredibly selective programs that can only give generous scholarships to eight individuals a year.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program does a better job of meeting students' needs. This is awarded to nearly 300 students every year. While it has produced some of the finest leaders on campus, it has also produced its fair share of students who, unfortunately, weren't ready for college.
The Opportunity Scholarship gives many students a chance in college, but the lack of any notable academic qualifications means that some of the $3.6 million in the program will inevitably be lost on students who can't handle UF.
I propose that UF adopts a program to single out its most holistically qualified freshmen applicants and offer them merit scholarship along with their admission, regardless of their family income. This will encourage the best applicants to come here rather than similar schools who might give them more incentives. They can fund it by eliminating national merit scholarships (which is based on one silly test) and by partially scaling back need-based programs or adding merit elements to the program that will help ensure that the money is well spent.
It's wildly popular in academia to "fight the good fight" for the oppressed and offer them need-based scholarships, but when education quality is declining and costs are rising, UF needs to remember its reputation as an institution. It needs to attract the best and brightest regardless of how poor or rich they are, and the easiest and most cost effective way to do this is through merit scholarships.
Johnathan Lott is a political science and economics sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
