<p>What’s next, should we not pay salary to government employed people with rich families?</p>
<p>The kid earned an athletic scholarship. It has nothing to do with financial need. Many kids with wealthy parents who refuse to pay for college rely on athletic/merit scholarships. If we took those away because their parents are wealthy, then we take education away from those kids.</p>
<p>He was being recruited by a bunch of D1 schools, like UVA and BC so I don’t see why he wouldn’t be recruited by UCLA. They are at the moment not a top 25 program and they had quite a few scholarships to give.</p>
<p>People who are outraged over this need to get over it. California already has one of the best aid programs and best uni systems in the country. </p>
<p>I say good for him. He’s not just getting through life on daddy’s money. Of course, it helped, but he didn’t have to work his butt off for a scholarship. If anything, this should be a role model for other celebrity kids.</p>
<p>One point of outrage is the fact that UCLA is a state school and thus, California taxpayers don’t feel happy that some of their educational tax dollars may be going to someone whose father is seriously loaded. </p>
<p>Regardless of whether he earned it or not…doesn’t look good from a PR standpoint…especially considering the severe educational cutbacks to the UCs and Cal States.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt that the UCLA FOOTBALL program is funding their scholarships with taxpayer money. I’m sure that they MORE than make enough money to be self-sustaining without taxpayer money.</p>
<p>Now to be fair, Diddy might want to consider making a donation to UCLA in the same amount to divert negative attention away from his son. It’s his money, his choice.</p>
<p>Then again, others will grumble about him doing that, too, I’m sure.</p>
<p>That may be true, but I’ve been hearing from Cali relatives and reading from the online news that many Californians are unhappy at the budget cutbacks for many educational programs/facilities at UC/Cal state schools while sports are swimming in money. The dissonant inconsistency with what some may consider to be a misprioritization of sports/entertainment over the core mission of state universities of providing education…especially to Cali residents plays a big part in this perception.</p>
<p>It says in the article that these scholarships are not funded with taxpayer money. My guess is that his father is likely to make some generous donations to the school.</p>
<p>Thank goodness most recipients of merit awards do not have to disclose financial information or even more people would be outraged.</p>
<p>We are not in the same category as P. Diddy, but I had a jealous neighbor make a crack when my DD accepted a nice scholarship rather than attending the big name school where we would have been full pay. </p>
<p>Perception is often more powerful than reality. </p>
<p>IMHO, P Diddy could have headed this off at the pass ahead of time by doing one of two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Having his son accept the “honor” of the athletic scholarship without accepting the money.</p></li>
<li><p>Upon hearing of the scholarship…immediately issuing a press statement vowing to make contributions to scholarship funds…especially for California residents.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>cobrat, that’s just not fair. Maybe the kid just wants to be Justin Combs rather than P Diddy’s son. I don’t blame him. Maybe he wants to do this on his own without dad making speeches about him or statements on his behalf. </p>
<p>This really, REALLY should not be an issue at all. I am a firm believer in leaving celebrity kids OUT of the media. It’s not their fault that mom or dad is famous.</p>
<p>From my point of view, D1 football is a job. Student-athletes work their butts off in order to advance their own career, but also to bring recognition and income to the college. They are paid in the form of a scholarship.</p>
<p>If Justin had taken a job in the Development Office, would we expect P Diddy to make a donation to offset his son’s salary? No. Why should he do that here?</p>
<p>By that standard, I’d have the right to claim I paid for my entire undergrad tuition to my private LAC by virtue of my near-full ride scholarship, working part-time/summers, and taking out a small 3 figured loan in my senior year which I paid off within 6 months of graduation. </p>
<p>Granted, I know better than to do this because nearly everyone I know will remind me of the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Scholarships are money provided by the scholarship foundations/individuals/schools to the student in the same way full/part-pay parents pay tuition for their own kids…scholarships aren’t really the “student’s money” in any sense of the word. In my case…my near-full ride scholarship was really the LAC’s money provided for my benefit for fulfilling some admission criteria. It’s not the same as money earned from working a part-time/summer/full-time job. </p></li>
<li><p>Making such an assertion gives short shrift to those very scholarship foundations/individuals/schools in the same way kids with full/part-pay parents do so when they assert “they paid for college.” </p></li>
<li><p>Consequently…doing so is extremely tacky, in poor taste, and ultimately…false.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Perhaps more accurate wording would be that she earned the scholarship and chose to attend the school that paid her tuition. I was trying to make a point about choices young people make.</p>
<p>While scholarships may be earned, they tend to be regarded more as a substitution of payer on behalf of student akin to a “rich grandparent/uncle/aunt”…not the undergrad’s own money. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I made that remark because she’s the first person I’ve encountered online/IRL who equates scholarships as a “student’s own money”. </p>
<p>Nearly everyone I’ve known would take serious issue with that as it gives short shrift to the individuals/scholarship foundations/schools which provided such scholarships. I know for a fact some generous scholarship donors…including several friends and older relatives would take serious umbrage at how that was worded.</p>