Last month, Binghamton University’s Student Association (SA) passed a resolution that allows a few organizations to offer scholarships that further diversity, equity and inclusion.
The organizations that can now offer monetary scholarships are the SA, Off Campus College Transport (OCCT) and Harpur’s Ferry. They are all campus-based and student-run organizations.
Jacob Eckhaus, SA vice president for finance (VPF) and a senior majoring in accounting, was the author of the resolution. Eckhaus explained the importance and objective of the resolution that was passed on Sunday, Feb. 21.
“This resolution allows for our corporations to award scholarships for reasons that advance a corporate goal or mission, such as diversity and inclusion,” Eckhaus wrote in an email. “With this new policy formally in place, scholarships become just one more tool to promote these causes in meaningful, impactful ways.”
According to Eckhaus, the scholarships that these three organizations can now offer will have varying requirements based on the specific organization, and they have to be approved by a few other groups in order to be accepted.
“The actual process and qualifications will be dependent on the scholarship in question,” Eckhaus wrote. “This policy does not establish any scholarships but rather sets in place the procedures for one of the corporations to create and implement one. The process and qualifications will be part of the proposal that must be approved as the policy lays out.”
The official resolution states that the groups who have to approve the scholarship are the corporation’s Board of Directors, either the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or the Student Life and Academics (SLA) Committee, the Financial Committee, Congress with a majority vote and the VPF. Approved scholarships have to be reviewed every four years and must be reapproved by these groups.
Although he was the author, Eckhaus said the idea for the resolution was not from the SA.
“The resolution was a response to an inquiry by Harpur’s Ferry regarding their ability to give out a scholarship for the purposes of diversity and inclusion within the first responder community at [BU],” Eckhaus wrote.
Liam Lane, member at large for Harpur’s Ferry and a first-year graduate student studying biomedical anthropology, explained the history behind this inquiry.
“Harpur’s Ferry’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee has worked over the past year to develop a scholarship for [BU] students that helps to offset some of the cost associated with [Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)] certification courses,” Lane wrote in an email. “This award is only available for students who are not a part of Harpur’s Ferry. We recognize that the cost of these courses may prevent some students from enrolling, and offering financial assistance is another way we are able to give back to the student community. We reached out to [Eckhaus], who helped us to develop this initiative and get the resolution passed by SA Congress.”
According to Lane, Harpur’s Ferry will not be offering scholarships to members of their organization. Instead, they are offering them to those who want to be involved in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) but are unable to due to the costs associated with it.
“We are hoping that this scholarship will allow more [BU] students to become more involved in EMS,” Lane wrote. “This scholarship is not tied to Harpur’s Ferry, meaning that we do not expect students who receive the award to apply to Harpur’s Ferry nor do they get any advantage in applying for membership if they choose to do so. EMT certification courses are expensive, and this is another way we would like to give back to the University community.”
Eckhaus stated he did not face obstacles when trying to pass the resolution.
“I was able to work with [Harpur’s Ferry], the University and [SA Congress] to codify the policy and pass it easily through [SA Congress],” Eckhaus wrote.
Since the resolution was passed recently, the SA does not plan on utilizing their new ability to offer scholarships just yet.
Mack Conan, ’19, public relations coordinator for OCCT, said OCCT will also not be providing scholarships right away.
“There are still a lot of details to go through on our end before we implement a potential scholarship,” Conan wrote in an email.
Unlike the SA and OCCT, according to Lane, Harpur’s Ferry intends to implement scholarships this semester if they are able to get them approved. Their plan is to offer two scholarships per year, one each semester, of $1,000. This can be used by a student enrolled in an accredited EMT course to pay for tuition and other expenses associated with the class.
Conan expressed his gratitude to the SA for getting this resolution passed.
“We appreciate the SA introducing this policy because it shows their dedication to the student employees,” Conan wrote.