Of the 860 first-time UTM freshmen who received the Tennessee HOPE lottery scholarship, 507 students, or 59 percent, are “on track” to retain their scholarships, according to University Relations director Bud Grimes. In order to keep the scholarships, which range in value from $3,000 to $4,000 annually depending on high school achievement, students must maintain at least a 2.75 GPA after completing 24 hours. After 48 hours, students are required to maintain a minimum of 3.0.

Ninety three students, or 11 percent of the first-time freshman class, earned a GPA between 2.5 and 2.74 after the fall 2004 semester and remain “within striking distance” of keeping their scholarship. 260 students, or 30 percent of the in-state freshmen receiving the scholarship, earned less than a 2.5 GPA after the fall semester, leaving them in danger of losing the scholarship.

“Lottery scholarships provide an honest opportunity to provide access to good students,” said Provost Tom Rakes. Rakes said that the 60 percent of students who could possibly continue to receive the awards was “better than Georgia,” which is often seen as the model for education-benefiting lotteries.

Everyone doesn’t feel so positive about the scholarships, however.

Freshman Chris Slott will likely lose his lottery scholarship after this semester. “It’s pretty bad,” he said. “I’m still going to come next year, but now I’ll have to pay a bunch of people back. (The lottery) is still good free money.”

The HOPE scholarship helped UTM enrollment to reach a record-breaking 6,104 students in the fall, according to University Relations. This year is the first year students are receiving the lottery scholarship. The criteria for the scholarship include graduating from a Tennessee high school in 2003 or 2004, having a high school GPA of at least 3.0 and having an ACT score of at least 19.

In the year since the lottery’s inception, the lottery reported gross ticket sales to be $863.4 million, with $246 million being raised for education. Revenues exceeded earlier ticket sales estimates and are leaving some Tennessee legislators to question what to do with the excess funds. Lottery officials initially projected that 65,000 students would cash in on the lottery scholarship, but to date only 36,600 have received the grants.