A04.04.04 College Acceptance of Student Award Funds

Policy Statement

Definitions

Procedures/Rules Statement

Policy Statement

Douglas College encourages donations to the Douglas College Foundation's scholarship and bursary funds that can be used to reward student excellence or to provide support for students with financial needs. The administration of such donations should be structured to maximize flexibility while adhering to public policy and legislation.

Definitions

1. Scholarship: Award based on academic excellence normally awarded to students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

2. Financial Award: Award based on a combination of financial need and superior academic achievement, normally demonstrated by GPA of 3.0 or higher.

3. Bursary: Award based on financial need and acceptable academic achievement, normally demonstrated by a GPA of 2.0 or higher.

4. Award of Distinction: A monetary or non-monetary award established for excellence within a specific area of study or by a competition whereby determination of the Award recipient(s) is based on adjudication by persons with expertise within that content area (e.g., performing arts, creative writing, athletics). Such awards are established through application to the Director, College Foundation and include a rationale for the need to adjudicate such awards by faculty or content expertise.

Procedures/Rules Statement

Guidelines for Acceptance of Award Funds

1. Douglas College will accept funds to establish Student Awards that:

1. assist students in overcoming financial barriers to entry or to successful completion of their program of studies at Douglas College;
2. provide incentives for academically excellence students to select Douglas College and enhance the College's profile as an institution which values excellence;
3. recognize and promote excellence of its students.

2. Criteria for disbursement of awards will be established by a donor, in consultation with the College and will recognize one or more of the above purposes.

3. To facilitate flexibility and adherence to pubic policy and legislation in the administration of the awards and to ensure funds go to those with the greatest needs, further criteria for student awards should normally be limited to:

1. an identified program;
2. a year in a program of study and/or course work completed;
3. a student's intent to enter a specific profession/career field as identified by the student and evidenced through program/course choices.

4. Where a specific endowment for student awards is established by a donor, and the funds allocated to that endowment do not reach a minimum amount (as set by the Foundation office) over a period of five years, the college will reserve the right to move such funds to a general college endowment fund. Such changes will be discussed with the donor and the initial donor will be recognized through the merged endowment funds, where feasible.

5. Criteria for awards are established through consultation with the donor of funds. The college will not accept criteria that allow the donor to become directly involved in the selection of award recipients. Where endowments are established to attract multiple donors, such as memorials, college employees contributing to such endowments would not be prevented from serving on award adjudication committees. It is expected that any committee member would self-identify if they perceive themselves as being in a conflict of interest position regarding any individual applicant.

6. Donors will be recognized through opportunities such as naming of the award and/or participation in donor recognition programmes as established by the Douglas College Foundation.

7. In all cases where the College accepts student award funds that include restrictions in addition to those identified in Rule Statement 1 above, the agreement between the donor and the College will include a clause that permits the College to remove such restrictions where the necessity for the restriction no longer exists or administration is no longer feasible (ie. program discontinuation). Every attempt will be made to ensure such changes are complimentary to the original intent of the donor and such changes will be discussed with the donor, where feasible.

8. Proposed awards will be reviewed by the Director, College Foundation in consultation with the Financial Aid Officer to ensure adherence to the College policy.

Guidelines for Acceptable Restrictions

Douglas College recognizes that there will be occasions when restrictions, which are congruent with the College's Mission, Values and Goals, may be applied to student awards. Acceptability of such restrictions will be monitored by the College to ensure that such restrictions will not constitute discrimination as defined by the Charter and/or by Human Rights Legislation and to ensure that the cross-section of the public to which the restriction applies is large enough so that public character is maintained.

1. The College is committed to educational equity goals and supports special consideration by Douglas College (for specific time periods) for groups such as aboriginal people, persons with disabilities, visible minorities and women. Such restrictions will be based on the individual's ability to self identify as eligible under the restrictions. Identification of acceptable additional restrictions that support such goals will be made and monitored by the Senior Management Team (SMT). In identifying such restrictions the College will be guided by the following consideration:

1. the expressed intent of the restriction is to recognize specific student achievement and/or to provide financial support for a particular group of students to promote educational equity, rather than an expressed or implied intent to discriminate against a competing group of students.
2. the need for restrictions to promote educational equity must be supported by evidence of under-representation of an equity group in a specific occupational field or low participation rates in a particular program of studies.

SMT will approve equity-based restrictions, either college wide or for a specific program of studies, upon receipt of a proposal by a program of studies or by an equity group (or advocates for an equity group). Approved equity programs will be listed in Appendix A.

2. The College may accept awards that are restricted to students based on their affinity to a particular organization, association, group or club provided that the goals and objectives of that organization, association, group or club are not in conflict with those of Douglas College.

3. The College may accept awards restricted to athletic participation in a specific sport that is available to one gender (ie gender-based teams). The College must ensure that there is a reasonably balanced availability of awards for both genders based on athletic participation.

4. The College may accept awards restricted to students based on school district or school attended, province/country of residence, or any other reasonable restriction related to place of residence.

5. The College may accept awards restricted to participation in non-curricular activities that complement a formal program of studies.

Guidelines for Disbursal of Awards

1. Allocation of Scholarships, Financial Awards, and Bursaries are determined by the Douglas College Selection Committee for Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, chaired by the Financial Aid Officer.

2. Administrative support for the determination of Scholarships, Financial Awards and Bursaries recipients, for the distribution of these awards, and for their donor recognition will be provided by the Financial Aid Office and the Douglas College Foundation Office.

3. Allocations of Awards of Distinction will be adjudicated by the appropriate content area (program/department) as specified in the established Award criteria. The Douglas College Foundation Office will, once per year, notify the appropriate content area administrator (Dean/ Director) of total funds available for the Award of Distinction in that fiscal year.

4. All administrative support for Awards of Distinction, including adjudication of awards, disbursement of funds and donor recognition, will be provided by that content area. The content area administrator (Dean/Director) will ensure that the process for the allocation of such awards is not discriminatory and does not contravene generally acceptable conflict of interest principles.

Outside Awards

Douglas College may provide assistance to external agencies offering awards where doing so may potentially benefit students at the College. Such requests will normally be evaluated within the context of the College's Mission, Values and Goals. It is recognized that in order to meet their particular objectives, special-interest groups may impose restrictions on awards which the College itself would not normally accept for its internal awards. Such requests shall be approved by the Director, College Foundation on the basis of the type and purpose of the restriction and on the basis of benefit or detriment to students of Douglas College. The College reserves the right to reject such requests.

APPENDIX A: APPROVED EQUITY PROGRAMS:

1. Restrictions related to promoting employment and educational equity goals for Aboriginal People (as per provincial policy framework)
2. Restrictions related to promoting employment and educational equity goals for persons with disabilities (as defined by the College)