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Hathaway Scholarship Lags Behind Tuition Costs

The awards given to college students under Wyoming’s Hathaway Scholarship Program have not kept up with tuition increases at the University of Wyoming and the state’s community colleges. Some Wyoming lawmakers support increasing the awards and are weighing their options for the upcoming legislative session—which begins next week. 

The scholarship started in 2006, and wasn’t increased at all until last year’s budget session—when lawmakers bumped it up 5 percent. 

When it began, the top Hathaway honors scholarship covered 91 percent of tuition costs at the University of Wyoming. Today, it covers just 72 percent.

Senate minority leader Chris Rothfuss says the top Hathaway award should cover as close to 100 as possible. Rothfuss is among lawmakers who say the state should consider a mechanism where the scholarships would be automatically adjusted to keep up with tuition. 

Others, like Senator Hank Coe, disagree. 

“I would not favor such a move because there’s so many variables that come into the equation,” Coe says. “Clearly we’re vulnerable or susceptible to the performance of the stock market, because that’s where the majority of the investments are that are generating the real returns that we need to make Hathaway continue to work. I would not support a cost of tuition increase being automatically tied to Hathaway. That comes down to being realistic.”

Coe, who chairs the Senate’s education committee, says he thinks the issue should be dealt with next year—during the budget session, not in the upcoming general session. 

“I’m leaning towards just leaving that alone, rather than to try to do something this session.” Coe says. 

In 2013, the state awarded more than 7.6 million dollars to about 6,400 Wyoming college students—with an average award of about $1,200 per student. Wyoming boasts the lowest in-state tuition for four-year college education of any state. 

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