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As a high schooler, Za’Nya Henderson helped start the first new NAACP chapter for students in Portage County in decades. When she saw an opportunity to apply for a Kent State University and Portage County NAACP scholarship, she was determined to get it.
For her application, Henderson wrote an essay on her experience starting the chapter after hearing people in neighboring communities make racist comments. It earned her the scholarship — worth roughly four years of tuition.
“Some students, they don’t have that family support, luckily, I do, but some students, they don’t have that,” said Henderson, a sophomore integrated language arts major. “These scholarships can be life changing for some people.”
Opportunities for students like Henderson may be dwindling, she said. Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling effectively ending affirmative action, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost ordered public universities to eliminate race-based scholarships or face potential personal liability.
The ruling did not directly address scholarships for students from protected classes.
At Kent State, one admission-based university scholarship and approximately 50 donor-funded scholarships “required some level of adjustment” following the directive, according to Eric Mansfield, the university spokesperson.
“We are working directly with those donors to amend their scholarships in cases where we have a formal gift agreement,” Mansfield said in a statement. “We have not formally paused any donor-funded scholarships as a result of this review.”
Out of the university’s more than $300 million endowment, scholarships that use race or ethnicity in their selection criteria account for just over $126,000. Many scholarships support between $300 and $8,300.
Mansfield said the university is committed to supporting students through personal, academic and financial support. The university would not disclose which scholarships were under review, and it did not respond to a public records request for a list.
Henderson recently met with this year’s scholarship recipient to discuss how the award has helped them.
“Sometimes I feel like a lot of Black students, they think that getting help is wrong and that they don’t need it,” Henderson said. “And that independence is key to everything.”
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Alton Northup is editor-in-chief. Contact him at [email protected].
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