A committee of the Academic Senate will mull a proposal that, if passed, will grant $300,000 in scholarships for NCAA student-athletes. On Oct. 25, the senate unanimously voted to allow an appointed group to revise the proposal, first introduced in spring 2005 by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph W. Watson.

Approval of the proposal, which would allocate about $500 from registration fee reserves for each athlete in grants-in-aid, would enable UCSD to attempt to match itself with other Division II universities for recruitment purposes, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Edward J. Spriggs. The approximate award to each student athlete would be $500.

However, John Muir College freshman Alan J. Maulhardt, a member of the UCSD basketball team, said the proposal would have little impact on students.

“I don’t think it will help recruiting at all,” he said. “Five hundred dollars is not going to convince anyone compared to the $18,000 that other schools offer. That was one of the reasons I almost didn’t come here.”

The grants-in-aid proposal was originally postponed at a spring meeting of the Academic Senate, when members decided that a small group would work to revise the proposal over the summer, according to Senate Chair Jean-Bernard Minster. Although the committee did meet once over the summer, it was not able to fully modify the proposal, and will continue its discussions on Oct. 28.

Currently, the NCAA requires that all Division II schools offer at least $250,000 for grants-in-aid, and UCSD remains one of the largest schools in the division that does not offer the minimum amount, according to Watson. Last year, Watson received a waiver from the requirement for the 2005-06 academic year from the NCAA, but he predicted at the spring meeting that the possibility of a perpetual waiver, similar to one given Ivy League Division II schools, is very low.

The Graduate Student Association is concerned that the amount of money appropriated for athletics would have to increase if NCAA standards were altered in the future, according to former GSA President Laura Kwinn.

The plan proposes that, over a period of time, enrollment growth provide permanent funding. The GSA had opposed the proposal last spring, questioning the stability of enrollment.

“The current proposal takes funds from registration fee reserves and savings, and plans to take further funds from the increase in enrollment in the coming years,” Kwinn said at the spring meeting. “What will happen when enrollment levels off? What will happen when the NCAA increases the scholarship requirement? We fear that without more open dialogue, students will be required to pay much more than they currently intend for the development of athletics on the campus.”

In addition, graduate students are being undercut in the proposal’s decision-making process, Kwinn said.

“I had requested to be a part of the committee [that will revise the proposal], but Dr. Watson deemed that inappropriate because he feels gradate students are not affected constituents,” she said. “I disagree, since graduate students also pay registration fees and have just as much vested in the future of UCSD as undergraduates.”

UCSD does not need additional recruitment tools, since its Division II teams have been successful enough in the past, Kwinn said.

The senate did not specify which provisions it wished to see changed in the proposal. However, senate members had opposed the proposal in the spring because they did not consider a 2.6 GPA requirement to receive the scholarships high enough to maintain the tradition of student-athletes that excel academically, according to the senate’s Assistant Director Gaye Hill.

The grants-in-aid proposal was made not just to meet the NCAA requirements, but also to create a buzz around the athletics program, Spriggs said. A lot of undergraduates complain that, despite all of its excellence, UCSD lacks a cultural and social atmosphere, he said.

While Maulhardt said he saw no correlation between giving scholarships to student-athletes and the generation of school spirit, he said he would take the money if offered.