Morehead State University will not be hosting next year's Governor’s Scholars Program (GSP) as it has the past four years.
The university lost in the bidding process against Murray State University.
“We are disappointed to not be hosting GSP for the next cycle. MSU’s best marketing strategy is to get students on campus," Jeffery Liles, assistant vice president of enrollment services, said. "We promote open houses and campus tours heavily, but the Governor’s Scholars Program was the best way for students to really get on campus and experience what we have to offer.”
Before MSU was a host campus for GSP less than 20 alumni were enrolled. In the four years that Morehead was a host campus that number rose to over 100 GSP alumni Liles said.
“Our average ACT score for incoming freshman was 19.7 five years ago, now it is 21.5. I feel like the number of GSP alumni we have gotten in the last few years has been a significant element in that increase,” said Liles. “Our scholarship program will continue to be a useful tool in attracting GSP alumni, in fact close to half of the GSP alumni that are here did not have Morehead as their host campus and most of them were exposed to us through our scholarship program.”
Morehead State plans to continue to offer scholarships to GSP alumni on a competitive basis, including the new Honor Scholarship that will be awarded to 40 incoming freshman every year and will go into effect in the 2010-2011 school year, Liles said.
GSP Alumni and MSU Vice President of Communication and Marketing Jami Hornbuckle said “I think we will certainly see some impact in our recruitment of GSP alumni based on the fact that students from the far western part of the state may not visit the campus otherwise."
The program did not only benefit the university, but also the community, Morehead's mayor David Perkins said.
“I feel like the citizens were pleased to have the students come and see our community, and even more pleased to see the students aid the community through service project that had been done every summer that GSP was here," he said. "It will not have a huge impact financially, although there will be some economic loss particularly local restaurants.”
Perkins said he hopes the program would return in the future.
“I think the program helped to broaden the scope of the university to a degree because it has traditionally served eastern Kentucky and this program brings students from all across the state to our community and we would certainly like to see it return to Morehead,” he said.
Every three years any institution in the state of Kentucky can submit a proposal to host GSP. The program originated in 1983 at Centre College and now includes three college campuses every summer. Morehead State University hosted the program for three years, but lost the most recent three year bid to Murray State University.
Jeffery Marshall, the executive director of the Center for Regional Engagement, said in the end it came down to money.
“Budgets are very tight. When the committee looks at the bids they are looking for the institutions that can make it happen for the least amount of money and this time we simply were not one of those institutions," he said. "I don’t think that the committee was dissatisfied with the way that we were running the program, this was just a dollars and cents decision.”
“President Andrews, Al Baldwin, and I met with the director of the program to discuss where we fell short, and it primarily came to room and board. Aramark provides a competitive rate for us to do the program but Murray was able to do it for much cheaper,” Marshall said.
Murray State University does not contract with a national food service company unlike most universities, including Morehead State. Murray operates its food service independently and as a result they can cut food costs more effectively than a university contracted with a food service company said Marshall.
MSU President Wayne Andrews said the difference over the next three years was only $50,000.
"Knowing that I think that at rebidding we have to look hard at how to provide food," Andrews said, hoping to get GSP back to campus in the future.
Andrews said the university will also start up efforts to introduce other summer programs for high school students. One option would be the Governor's School for the Arts, currently offered at Transylvania University.
"There could be a possibility to expand it to two institutions," he said.
The university could also introduce its own programs that would present academic programs such as the space science center or the theatre program to high school students, Andrews said. He plans to meet with the deans of college to discuss these plans.
Additional reporting by Carlo Angerer – Editor
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