With a new leader in power, bills of all kind are getting passed through legislation. I'm not a highly political person, so I tend to avoid conversations involving or regarding the topic. However, a recent e-mail changed my mind on just how much I should pay attention to what is going on in the government. The message detailed that sometime during the winter holiday, lawmakers decided to cut the University of Iowa's budget in an attempt to save money. The money was cut from the scholarship fund, primarily affecting five family heritage or transfer scholarships. The decision affected the university in a large manner, but it also affected thousand of students who were granted the scholarship(s) until they reach their bachelor's degree.

I was one of those students.

To those who weren't affected by the sudden bill, it might seem like nothing. However, it feels like a slap in the face to me. Both of my parents and many relatives of mine attended the University of Iowa and reside in the town of Iowa City itself and in the neighboring suburbs. One of the main reasons why I decided to attend the university was because of the family connections I had to it. I was born a Hawkeye, and I decided to live out my college life as a Hawkeye. Obtaining the scholarship that acknowledged the family history I had within the university made me feel proud in my decision to continue the legacy. Now, I wonder why I didn't just attend a cheaper community college back home.

I was told that roughly eight million dollars worth of scholarship money goes unclaimed. I believe this because some of the criteria that need to be met are so specific that someone from outer space would have a difficult time meeting the requirements. I am about as average as average could possibly be. I had decent grades, but I wasn't a genius in high school and I am still not one. I wasn't fantastic at sports or the fine arts, and I decided to pursue a degree in a field popular at the university. The scholarship taken away from me didn't require me to be fantastic at anything, so why take it away? I can tell you that when I have looked through the online database dedicated to scholarships linked to the university, I have found some that don't even make sense. Can someone explain to me why they feel a need to have twenty different scholarships for engineering students that pretty much require the same thing? Why does someone from Middle-of-Nowhere, Iowa get a free money for eating dirt while I can't even get a couple thousand dollars for following in my parents' footsteps? There are other scholarships that I believed should have been removed, and I think the people who decided that it would be a good idea to discontinue the ones dedicated to acknowledging family heritage have yet to see that. As mentioned before, a variety of scholarships is available for one certain major while only two exist for recognizing the heritage of current and former Hawkeyes. I don't know how to run a university and I never will, but what is the harm in cutting those ones or reducing the scholarship amount?

At the end of the day, I will still continue bleeding black and gold. However, I think those in the government should consider the affect their decision is having on the other two thousand college students in the same situation as me. If I desired, I could easily enroll in one of the other three colleges my father attended just so I could receive a scholarship acknowledging that he attended there, too. Many other students could also, causing a decline in enrollment. If they decide to act on this idea, then the University of Iowa will only face more budget concerns. They'll most likely only have to cut more money - the exact opposite of the solution created when they approved the decision this past winter.