Associated Students Inc. approved a change in next semester’s scholarship at Wednesday’s ASI Board Meeting.

This new scholarship, which will be a general scholarship, will have a deadline of Feb. 16, 2007, said Tiffany Huang, the ASI vice president of Finance, in an e-mail. The awards will be given out to the winners in March, according to official ASI documents.

In order for the criteria to be made more clear, ASI clarified how many units full-time students need to qualify for the scholarship. Undergraduates will need 12 units and graduate students will need 9 units to be considered full-time.

The scholarship will have a GPA requirement of 2.5 for both undergraduates and graduates, Huang said.

According to official ASI documents, the first part of evaluation and selection will be by a task force and the final evaluations will be by the ASI Board of Directors.

The winners will be notified by either e-mail or a formal letter, according to the documents. Photographs of the winners will be posted in the ASI office of the University Union.

ASI is hoping for a large number of students to apply for the $500 scholarships, said Joyce Davis, the ASI graduate director.

“We need them to take this money or else it’s lost,” Davis said at the meeting.

“The $15,000 amount for the scholarship was budgeted into the ASI budget by the (outgoing) Finance and Budget Committee and ASI Board of Directors,” Huang said in an interview.

A task force made up of five people was started in October 2006, to set “the criteria, the process of competition, review and evaluation and awards,” according to official ASI documents.

Along with Huang and Davis, the task force included Jackie Morris-Henderson as the University Scholarship Coordinator and Michael Sandoval as the student-at-large. One spot for an ASI staff employee was vacant. As of press time, the reason for this vacancy was unknown.

Huang said $1,000 was put aside for promoting the new scholarship. Promotions will include fliers, posters, the ASI website and possibly the main Sacramento State website.

ASI currently has two $1,000 scholarships – the Ron Tanton and the Arnulfo Lara memorial scholarships. The ASI general scholarship will not replace these scholarships, Huang said.

The Arnulfo Lara scholarship has a requirement that full-time students have at least seven units a semester, according to the ASI website.

The Ron Tanton Memorial Scholarship does not require students to need financial aid, while the Arnulfo Lara Memorial scholarship does require students to have “an unmet need for (the) academic year,” according to the ASI website.

The scholarships also require students’ transcripts from the previous semester to prove that they have good standings. Students will also have to submit a 500-word essay. Students will also have to give their e-mail, phone number, GPA and social security numbers.

“We want as many students to apply as possible,” Huang said.

Jamie Gonzales can be reached at [email protected].