Students may soon feel the affects of another cut.

According to Curt Betebenner, Missouri Southern Foundation director, scholarships could be reduced by $62,000 next year. Due to the suffering national economy, scholarship funds are earning no interest; therefore, the money cannot be paid to students.

“I’m certain they (students) will be upset,” Betebenner said. “However, these are educated people, and they understand what the economy is doing. It’s not done with malice; it’s done as a matter of economy, and hopefully they’re savvy enough about the ways of the world.”

The Foundation receives money for scholarships in three ways.

With beneficial perpetual trusts, banks manage the Foundation’s $10 million principle, and the Foundation receives the interest earned from it.

“The market and economy are bad out there, so those trusts are earning less income,” Betebenner said. “So they cut the amount of money they sent to the Foundation this year, so we had to cut what we send to the College next year.”

Through annual giving, the Foundation also receives scholarship money. This comes in the forms of donations. Betebenner said many people are hesitant to donate during bad economical times.

“People are afraid,” he said. “They don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The third category of funding is through endowed scholarships. This money belongs to the Foundation and is managed by two investment banks.

“In the same manner that the banks that manage our $10 million have less earnings, we have less money and less earnings off the ones we manage,” Betebenner said. “That last group of scholarships is the one that’s driving the biggest part of the cuts.”

Several departments will experience cuts of endowed scholarships. Communications could lose four; social sciences could lose three; nursing one; teacher education one; athletics one; business two; science four; and English two. As of now, art is the only department that stands to increase its number of endowed scholarships at three.

Betebenner said interest on money given for endowed scholarships has been declining since 1999, so the College is unable to award any money from those scholarships.

According to a 2001-02 endowment performance survey by [ital]Business Officer[endital] magazine for public colleges and universities’ endowment fund interest declined on average by 6.3 percent last year.

Public institutions that operate on $25 million or less experienced an average 6.6 percent decrease. Missouri Southern saw a 1.24 percent reduction.

Betebenner said he has warned department heads of these cuts, but they are “not a done deal yet.”

He said a budget committee meeting, consisting of College administration and Foundation officials, will occur in two to three weeks, and discussion will take place as to what kinds of cuts have to be made. A final decision must be made before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

Dr. Terri Agee, vice president for business affairs, said she would like to think the current draft of scholarship cuts will not be the official one.

“I plan to have discussions with the Foundation and see if we can’t soften the impact of what they’re proposing,” Agee said. “It causes me great concern.”

Students are also concerned. Susie Murphy, senior speech communications major, was surprised by the large amount of cuts the communications department could receive. She said communications majors will definitely feel the effects.

“It may be a small income, but it’s an income that they use,” she said.

Murphy said the cuts could even affect students’ decisions to stay at Southern.

“It’s definitely a possibility if they could get a scholarship at another school,” she said.

Dr. Scott Wells, head of the biology department, said “anytime we have a cut in scholarships, it hurts the students.”

Despite the large cut the science department as a whole could experience, he said the biology department will not be hit as hard as first thought because some other scholarships will be increased.

“We’re going to come out in pretty good shape,” he said.

He said some students may lose an endowed scholarship, but may qualify to receive another kind of scholarship in its place.

But Wells said the biology department is impacted in other ways by the decrease in Foundation money. He said the department normally receives Foundation money for the annual science fair but will now have to find other sources.

“We’ll just have to deal with what we’ve got and make the best of it,” he said.

Despite the consequences of the cuts, Wells believes the Foundation has no other choice.

“I don’t see any alternative to it,” he said.

Betebenner wants to remain positive and hopes others can as well because the Foundation still has $472,000 in scholarship money to distribute.