Many colleges award more merit-based scholarship money to athletes than to all other undergraduates combined. Critics say this sends disturbing messages about institutional priorities. Others claim athletic scholarships derive from sports-related income. Awarding of athletic scholarships based on need would partially alleviate the problem. (MSE)

Reports on a $1 billion dollar grant from Bill and Melinda Gates to send 20,000 low-income minority students to college. The Gates Millenium Scholars Program will require students to demonstrate financial need and maintain a 3.0 grade point average in college. A list of the largest private gifts to higher education since 1967 is also provided. (DB)

Virtually all reform measures proposed at the National Collegiate Athletic Association annual meeting pass by wide margins. Changes include reduced coaching staffs and scholarships, phasing out of athletic dormitories and training tables, limiting practice and playing time, reduced recruitment expenditures. However, substantive change is not seen…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association's proposed reductions in scholarships, affecting most non-revenue sports but sparing big-time football, are widely criticized for their disproportionate effects on women and minority groups. (MSE)

Memphis businessman Avron Fogelman has established a foundation that will allow former Memphis State athletes who failed to graduate to pursue their education after their athletic eligibility has expired. He encourages former university athletes to return to college and assists the scholarship recipients in getting jobs. (MLW)

Although African Americans comprise almost one-quarter of all scholarship athletes at Division I colleges and universities, they constitute only 6 percent of full-time undergraduates there. Figures trouble academics, experts on race, and other higher education observers. The trend may reinforce stereotypes and demoralize students. More aggressive…

A survey of 203 colleges and universities investigated disparities in spending on men's and women's sports. Survey data on the distribution of men and women students and athletes and differential spending (amounts and percentages) on athletics scholarships, programs, and recruitment are displayed in tables and analyzed. (MSE)

The Ivy League was the product of a protest movement by eight college presidents who were dismayed by the growing professionalism of intercollegiate athletics. The league adopted two major tenets: athletes would be admitted under the same criteria as other students, and colleges would only provide need based financial aid. (MLW)

The federal Hope Scholarship program, designed as a middle-class tax break, required substantial negotiation and diverse, often conflicting tactics to become policy. The story of the idea's creation and its journey to policy, based on interviews with over three dozen college officials, Clinton administration aides, lawmakers, and others is…

Some high-school athletes with borderline grades and low achievement-test scores are enrolling in small, private preparatory schools in an effort to meet the National Collegiate Athletic Association's academic standards and play sports during their freshman year in college. (MLW)

A study on sex equity by the National Collegiate Athletic Association found men's college athletic teams receive 70 percent of athletic scholarship money, 77 percent of operating money, and 83 percent of recruiting money spent by colleges playing big-time sports, despite virtually equal enrollment of men and women. Interpretations of the data…

This article describes the report of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which enunciates principles of a new model of college sports governance. Ten recommendations include total authority given to college presidents, who should ensure program compliance with federal statutes barring sex discrimination; and review of…