The University of Colorado announced a $1 million gift and a pledge to raise $7.5 million Thursday for scholarships for low-income students and students of color.
“We believe it will significantly increase our enrollment of students with diverse backgrounds,” CU interim president Hank Brown said.
The scholarships will go to graduates of CU’s pre-collegiate program, which is for first- generation-college, low-income and minority students who take college classes while in high school. The university said 97 percent of students in the program apply to CU, yet only 60 percent of them enroll.
What stands in their way is a lack of money, Brown said.
CU cashed its first $50,000 check for the new fund Thursday and will receive $50,000 each year for 10 years, university spokeswoman Michele McKinney said. If CU raises $7.5 million in private donations within 10 years, it will get the entire $1 million.
The gift is from the Pioneer Fund, a private foundation set up by Denver businesswoman Helen McLoraine, who died three years ago.
Brown said he’s confident CU can raise the full sum within three years.
“My sense is that there is strong interest,” he said.
CU-Boulder students demanded last month that university leaders come up with $5 million to improve diversity. Just 1.5 percent of students at the Boulder campus are black, and 5.8 percent are Latino.
Students staged a November walkout in protest of several racist incidents since last spring, including graffiti, complaints that black students were spit on and violence. A black student leader received a threatening e-mail full of racial slurs in November, and two athletes sent a racist e-mail to an athlete with Mexican heritage in December.
Students appreciate the new fund but also want CU to provide scholarships to other minority students besides those in the pre-collegiate program, said student government leader Jeremy Jimenez.
“The students will see this as a great stride but as a first stride,” he said.
Jimenez, a first-generation student who is Latino, took college courses in high school as part of CU’s pre-collegiate program.
“It helped me get here,” he said. “It helped me stay here.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
