Due to cutbacks, the Educational Opportunity Fund has recently considered phasing out medical, dental, and law scholarships to students.
Because the EOF is funded by the state, the state budget plays the leading role in determining how much money the EOF is given to continue its work. According to the associate dean and director of the EOF, Dr. Hasani Carter, if there is a shortage in state revenue then cuts in the state budget will follow.
While a budget shortage is anticipated, the EOF is prepared to handle the situation, according to Carter.
Carter said members and administrators will take into account the priorities within the programs and decisions will be made after that.
"We try to make ourselves available to educate legislators and the governor as early as possible because the more aware they are, the more they can help shape the budget before it gets developed," Carter said.
EOF students travel to Trenton each year "to have the legislators speak with them and for our students to have an opportunity to learn about the advocacy and to political process," Carter said. "Our job is to inform and educate our legislators about what impacts our students on the campus level."
The EOF at Seton Hall uses programs such as the Educational Opportunity Program, the Pre Medical/ Pre Dental Plus Program and the Pre-Legal Institute Program to help give students new opportunities, according to Carter.
Carter said the EOF also administers financial support to students as well, providing those who qualify with a grant ranging anywhere from $200 to $2,500 a year.
Carter said the Education Opportunity Fund has three scholarships: the undergraduate grants, the Martin Luther King Medical and Dental Scholarship and the Clyde Ferguson Law Scholarship.
Danielle Adamkiewicz can be reached at danielle.adamkiewicz@student.shu.edu.
