UA President Mark Hamilton announced that participation of freshmen in the University of Alaska Scholars Program has decreased for the first time since its conception, but the program's administrator is not so sure.

Established in 1999, the UA Scholars program today awards Alaskan high school students in the top 10 percent of their graduating class with $11,000 to attend a UA campus. Fewer than 100 students participated the first year; today there are almost 1,400 scholars.

Hamilton announced the preliminary results Tuesday before the Board of Regents. The president expected the numbers to "plateau, at best," this year, but neither he nor the board could point to why the drop occurred.

The number of new scholars is slightly lower than last year, according to Linda English, the program's administrator. Official numbers were not yet available, but she said there are about 450 new scholars compared to 459 last year.

But she felt Hamilton spoke a little early and that numbers could rise before the enrollment freeze Sept. 27. "We really feel that we'll be flat," she said.

Overall scholar enrollment is still in question. Hamilton had told the board that the numbers were up, but data provided by English disagreed with his assessment, with a drop from 1,385 last year to 1,358.

Final numbers will not be released until Oct. 11, English said, after the university analyzes and cleans-up the data.

The freshmen drop comes on the heels of recent Fairbanks campus numbers that show the first decrease in school enrollment in five years. Although official numbers will not be available for another week, enrollment was 7,026 at registration's close, a 0.6 percent decrease.

The UA Scholars Program was designed to cut down on the "brain-drain," a trend that many Alaskan high school graduates enroll in out-of-state colleges and never return. The university has been unable to track the 235 scholars that have graduated, Hamilton said, but they are working with the Department of Labor to see if they remain in-state.

"Understand that one of the principles behind this program was taking students from each school in this state," Hamilton said. By doing this, Hamilton felt that students would be encouraged to network and make stronger bonds to the state.

Despite tuition increases, Hamilton said he would not move to increase the award's amount. The university did this once before, he said, increasing it from $10,800 to $11,000 in 2000, but after seeing large budgetary losses, Hamilton vowed not to do it again.

The program was modified slightly this year, but changes will not go into effect until the class of 2005. Changes include new application deadlines and an increase in the minimum GPA to maintain eligibility from 2.0 to 2.5. 

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