Athletics group seeks compromise after ‘reining in’ of scholarships
Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference administrators want a meeting with the government to discuss funding alternatives after they were told the province would be “reining in” a $400,000 overspend on sports scholarships.
The Jimmie Condon Athletic Scholarship, named in honour of an Alberta Sports Hall of Fame member and Calgarian philanthropist, recognizes athletic performance at universities, colleges and technical institutes in Alberta with up to $1,800 in funding.
About $3.5 million is set aside annually for the Condon award, but last year $3.9 million was doled out to Alberta student athletes, with the government covering the $400,000 difference.
A statement from the Department of Advanced Education said the province has covered the difference to varying degrees for roughly 15 years.
But “institutions have now been made aware the government is no longer in a position to continue this practice.”
This coming academic year, the provincial government set a hard ceiling of 1,944 scholarships with a vast majority earmarked for students attending the 16 Albertabased post-secondary members of the province’s athletic college conference.
Those institutions will be responsible for determining who the recipients are.
The only hitch is that postsecondary athletic departments only found out at the start of May and they are now raising concerns that government’s sudden decision could adversely impact this coming season because coaches routinely start recruiting 12 months out and have made offers to athletes they can no longer keep.
Association chief executive Mark Kosak said the government had informed them that there would be a 23 per cent acrossthe-board cut to Jimmie Condon scholarships, bringing down the awards to 1,218 this coming year from 1,582 previously, a cut that will affect 364 student athletes.
“We’ve requested some time with (the government) to explain how the reduction is going to impact students and student athletes and see if there are some options or resolutions or some sort of concessions we can explore to minimize the impact,” Kosak said.
“There are student athletes who expected to receive a scholarship who will not, because of this very late notice about reduction.”
While the Jimmie Condon scholarship doesn’t make up all of student athlete’s funding, it’s still a significant portion of money they receive, Kosak said.
“It’s conceivable coaches are having very difficult conversations with kids that they no longer have an award for them, or they are going to have to give them less money, or the coaches are beating the bushes to work out how they are going to raise some more money,” he said.
“No one wants to harm students and no one wants to make decisions to hurt people who need financial support, so I’m working on the assumption that the people who make the decisions, the higher levels of our government, truly don’t understand how this impacts students.
“Hopefully there is some middle ground.”
An emailed government statement said: “This government is committed to reining in costs while also ensuring money from taxpayers and students is used efficiently and focused on enhancing post-secondary education.
“Discussions are ongoing to ensure the scholarships remain within the allocated budget for the coming year,” the statement said.
The changes will take effect on Sept. 1.
The Jimmie Condon scholarship is one of about 70 offered by the government through the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund that is administered by Alberta Student Aid.