On Monday, Aug. 28, Scripps College President Amy Marcus-Newhall announced in an email to the community that the Schuler Initiative will no longer be donating $15 million to the college it had previously promised, due to the state of the financial market.
Scripps announced the grant last September, accompanied by a donation-matching campaign within the Scripps community, bringing the cumulative total to $30 million over the next 10 years.
The Schuler Initiative, a subsect of the Schuler Education Foundation, aims to increase the enrollment of Pell-eligible and undocumented students who are otherwise unable to receive federal financial aid at top liberal arts colleges.
Scripps was one of five colleges set to receive funding from the Schuler Initiative. The Initiative had previously sponsored another cohort of five colleges, including Williams, Middlebury and Wellesley.
Marcus-Newhall announced this change in her Fall Welcome email as part of a series of updates and announcements.
According to Marcus-Newhall’s statement, the current cohort’s funding will now be put on hold indefinitely. She said that the Schuler Initiative “hope[s] to partner with Scripps in the future.”
The Initiative cited “market conditions” as the reason for putting the new cohort on hold. The Schuler Education Foundation did not respond to TSL’s request for comment.
Scripps and Pitzer College are the only 5Cs that practice need-aware admissions, meaning a student’s economic status is considered in admissions.
With the Schuler Initiative withdrawing their donation, Scripps will rely more heavily on their own fundraising efforts through the Scripps Access Initiative.
In a statement to TSL, Assistant Director of News and Strategic Communications Rachael Warecki said that the college “continues to strive to meet or exceed its original fundraising target of $15 million over a 10-year period.”
To date, the community has raised $2 million, thanks in part to a $1 million donation-matching challenge from former trustee Chalan Colby SC ’61.
This money will allow Scripps to increase need-based financial aid for Pell-eligible and undocumented students beginning in 2025, Warecki said.
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