Assessment of Cal Poly Pomona Practices in Administering Scholarships and Philanthropic Funds

Scholarship management at Cal Poly Pomona requires involvement of various university divisions and departments that face an array of challenges which impact their ability to successfully administer and award scholarships, and fully service students due to procedural obstacles and bureaucratic tendencies. The purpose of this Applied Public Administration Project is to understand scholarship administration through assessment of current business practices and identification of existing inefficiencies across departments at Cal Poly Pomona. In order to provide information to campus partners and leaders, this project examines administration of scholarships from receipt of philanthropic gift (donation) to student receiving financial aid in the form of a scholarship. Furthermore, it consists of collecting existing data on philanthropic funds (scholarships & endowments), awarding processes, and departmental collaborations in key functional areas. The content in this multi-faceted project is informed by findings of institutional data, focus groups and interviews with vital campus representatives involved in the process, as well as a comparative case study between two academic colleges in the university. The objective was to help identify obstacles to ease the management of scholarships and awarding of funds. This informational report determines areas of improvement and offers guidance to Cal Poly Pomona’s leadership to avoid undermining student/administration experience, and improve the scholarship process, thus, contributing to student success.