Central Michigan University (CMU) inadvertently notified nearly five dozen high school students that they had received a full-ride scholarship including full tuition, room, and board, textbooks, and a $5,000 “study away award.”
The students were disappointed to learn that CMU had made an embarrassing gaffe, and the message was sent when university officials were “testing a new messaging technology.”
To smooth things over, the university decided this week to go ahead and pay four years of full tuition for the students anyway. However, the 58 students will not receive the other perks mentioned in the erroneous notification, the school stated.
In an updated statement on Wednesday, university spokesman Aaron Mills said the university would reach out to each of the families “to make it right.” The school will also “increase their award amount to the equivalent of a full-tuition scholarship.”
All’s Well That Ends Well?
Newaygo High Schooler Parker Christensen told Central Michigan Life how his mother was so excited that she had even written a Facebook post announcing her son’s scholarship. Christensen was devastated when he learned that it was all a big mistake.
CMU reached out to Christensen and his family and bumped up his Maroon and Gold Scholarship (which pays between 20-60 percent of four-year tuition) to a full-tuition scholarship equivalent to $12,750 per year.
“This is the last thing I expected to happen,” Christensen told the school newspaper.
CMU is now concerned at how much 58 full-tuition scholarships will cost.
“I think this was the right thing for CMU to do — but all I have now are questions. Where will this money come from while we cut college and department budgets? Where’s the money coming from when enrollment is tanking?” Faculty Association President Amanda Garrison said.