Scholars culled from record pool

After screening the largest candidate group in the history of the program, trustees of the John Motley Morehead Foundation will announce the next class of Morehead Scholars at noon today.

From a record 1,549 nominees, the foundation narrowed the field to 112 finalists in late February. Final interviews were finished last weekend — completing the evaluation process that began last fall.

Today, the foundation will make its final cut and name 43 new Morehead Scholars.

Charles Lovelace, executive director of the Morehead Foundation, said this year’s class included one of the strongest and biggest candidate pools ever.

“Each year, the competition for the award is more intense,” he said. “It becomes more difficult to choose between so many well-qualified students.”

The award is given every year to students who display leadership, academic achievement, physical vigor and moral force of character, Lovelace said.

The scholarship, funded by the Morehead Foundation, provides students four years of free undergraduate education. The award also covers the costs of four summer enrichment programs, a Carolina Computing Initiative computer and a stipend to cover fees, housing and other expenses. During four years, these benefits add up to about $80,000 for in-state students and $140,000 for out-of-state students.

With the recent increases in both in-state and out-of-state tuition, the Morehead Foundation has faced funding problems.

Besides causing administrative cutbacks, Lovelace said, the hikes forced the foundation to cut back on the number of awards given.

“We’ve had to cut our class size from about 60 scholars six years ago, down to 40 the last two years,” he said. “This year our target class size is 42.”

To raise enough money to offset tuition increases, the Morehead Foundation created a separate fund-raising initiative within the Carolina First campaign — UNC’s private fund-raising program.

Its goal, Lovelace said, is to accumulate enough money in donations to increase the Morehead class size to 50 by 2010.

Lovelace said fund-raising efforts already have been effective. After just one year, the foundation raised enough money to increase its target class size from 40 to 42.

Having the resources to offer even two more students this opportunity is a significant improvement, he said.

Lovelace credited fund-raising success to a deep appreciation of what the foundation has done for Morehead alumni.

“We don’t have any illusion that this is not going to require a lot of alumni support,” he said. “But I think most alumni have a deep appreciation for the Morehead program because it’s done so much for them.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.