 
683 Vallone Scholarship Recipients Will Have to
Ante up $160 after Shortfall Is Discovered
Staten Island Advance - Sunday, April 20, 2008
Some top College of Staten Island students are learning a troubling
lesson not in their curriculum: The city giveth and the city taketh
away.
With weeks left in the spring 2008 semester, almost 700 CSI students
were recently informed the Peter F. Vallone Scholarship, a City
Council-funded tuition award for those maintaining a B average, has
been cut by $160 and they owe the school that amount for this term.
The students paid their tuition months ago after originally being
told the award would be $625. It was decreased to $465 just weeks
ago.
Parents are fuming.
"It's like giving a child candy and then taking it away," said
Annadale resident Dennis R. Fisher, whose daughter, Dana, is a
freshman at the Willowbrook school.
"My daughter worked very hard to keep her grades up in order to
receive this scholarship in the first place."
"It's ridiculous," said Great Kills resident Doris Borello, whose
son, Joseph La Rocca, 20, a junior, is a film and cinema studies
major. "We're hardworking people and we pay taxes."
Spokesmen for CSI and The City University of New York (CUNY) said
the shortfall resulted from a double-digit increase in the number of
scholarships awarded while available funds remained flat.
"The college regrets this situation occurred," said Kenneth Bach, a
CSI spokesman. "We apologize to students and their families for this
unanticipated financial hardship."
Bach said 683 CSI students have been impacted. However, none will be
prevented from enrolling in classes in the upcoming spring and
summer semesters or from graduating.
Named for the former City Council speaker, the Vallone scholarship
was established by the council a decade ago.
B AVERAGE REQUIRED
To be eligible, high school students must graduate with at least a B
average and have successfully completed at least 12 academic credits
in high school. They must enroll and start taking classes in a CUNY
school, such as CSI, within a year of graduation.
Students must maintain continuous full-time enrollment at a CUNY
school and a 3.0 grade point average. Baccalaureate candidates are
eligible for scholarships for up to 10 semesters.
Awards are handed out in the fall and spring terms and amounts vary
according to program appropriations made by the City Council in the
city budget.
Michael Arena, a CUNY spokesman, said the number of Vallone
scholarships awarded systemwide jumped 12 percent from the fall 2006
semester to the fall 2007 number. However, the total allocation
remained at $11.2 million.
He could not immediately say how many awards were handed out in each
of those years.
Bach said Vallone scholarships awarded at CSI spiked 14 percent --
from 909 to 1,036 -- over the same period.
Not all those students were affected by the dollar decrease, since
some graduated, and others were either recently added to or deleted
from the list due to their grades.
EARNED AN INCREASE
Fisher said his daughter received $500 in Vallone scholarship money
for the fall 2007 semester when she entered CSI. She plans to study
nursing.
She earned the necessary grades and her tuition bill for the spring
2008 semester said the scholarship had been increased to $625, said
Fisher.
Ms. Fisher, who works part-time and pays her own tuition, deducted
that amount when she paid her bill.
To her surprise, the CUNY Office of Student Financial Assistance
sent her a letter dated March 31 advising the award would actually
be $465.
Days later, she received a bill from CSI saying she owed $160.
"If they had said [something about the award decrease] before the
start of the semester, I could see it," said her father, adding she
has not yet paid the $160. "[But] they're punishing kids for getting
good grades."
Arena, the CUNY spokesman, said officials decided to let students
deduct $625 from their tuition for the spring 2008 semester, but a
shortfall resulted when the final numbers were tallied.
Mrs. Borello, La Rocca's mother, said the $160 won't break her. But
she wonders why officials didn't just charge students regular
tuition and send them a refund check when the award was finalized.
"It's the principle," said Mrs. Borello. "You gave us something. Why
take it back?"
Her 20-year-old son, who has received the scholarship for six
straight semesters, agreed.
"If she's paid the bill before, why does she have to pay it again?"
La Rocca asked.
By Frank Donnelly
Reprinted here with permission
from the
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