UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
The current economic environment in the U.S., as well as in the state of Illinois, has considerably reduced the funding available for higher education programs. As a result, state funding has continually fallen short of meeting the needs of Illinois’ higher educational institutions thus affecting the school’s ability to provide financial assistance to needy students and to recruit highly qualified underrepresented minority candidates into the profession. For this reason the supplemental stimulus dollars will be extremely helpful to the School in enhancing its recruitment efforts for highly qualified underrepresented minority candidates and to provide additional financial support to continuing minority students so that they can focus on their studies instead of worrying about financing in their education by working.
The stimulus dollars will be used to recruit undergraduates and returning professionals who are considering a career in Community Health (Public Health Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health, Health Promotion and Behavioral Science, and Gerontology), Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Health (Toxicology), and Health Policy and Administration.
The UIC SPH has received an award of stimulus funding for $177,266 for the period 9/1/09 – 8/31/12. The stimulus money will be spent over 3 years. The first year’s funding ($59,089) was distributed by headcount to each division. Specified amounts were given to each division to be spent on minority recruitment and retention. This first 1/3 of the total funding was spent in the form of student admissions scholarships awarded on 8/23/2010 to new graduate students at the UIC School of Public Health.
The ethnic and gender breakdown of the scholarship recipients includes the following:
11 African American Females; 1 African Amerian Male; 4 Hispanic Females; 2 Hispanic Males; and 1 Native American Male. 16 are pursuing their Master in Public Health (MPH) degree; 1 is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health (PhD); 1 is purshing the Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) and 1 student is pursuing the Master in Healthcare Administration (MHA).
The 2nd third of the grant allocation ($59,089) was distributed to divisions at the beginning of the Academic Year (September 2010). This money was awarded to talented underrepresented minority students who were newly admitted to the UIC School of Public Health. The School used the funds to provide scholarships to newly admitted students to alleviate the high cost of graduate school. Almost all funds for the 2nd year of the grant money were spent by August 31, 2011. One student left the school early and their scholarship was returned to the pool for use in the final allocation, approximately $1997.00
The final third of the grant allocation ($61,086.00) was distributed to divisions at the beginning of the Academic Year (September 2011). This money was awarded to talented underrepresented minority students who have been newly admitted to the UIC School of Public Health. The School is used the funds to provide scholarships to newly admitted students to alleviate the high cost of graduate school. All funds for the 3rd year of the grant money were spent by August 31, 2012.