Scholarship lost to residency rule
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
For a brief, shining moment, Mary Anne Meyers, a military wife who went back to college 20 years after high school, was a University of Hawai'i Presidential Scholar, one of a group of 10 outstanding students honored for their academics and for giving back to their community.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
But barely a month after she got the congratulatory letter, Meyers was stripped of the award because a UH committee didn't consider her a bona fide Hawai'i resident, one of the requirements for the scholarship.
As HCC student government vice president, Mary Anne Meyers, left, was helping students with voting on Tuesday.
Though Meyers and her husband have lived in Hawai'i since 1999 and plan to stay here, the committee on resident status, which decides such issues, noted that the couple did not file Hawai'i resident personal income taxes, and do not own or rent a home. Her husband, Doug, serves in the U.S. Air Force and they live at Hickam Air Force Base in housing provided by the military.
But she is a registered voter in Hawai'i and voted in the last election — one of two primary criteria of residency under the university's own rules. The other is paying state taxes.
"There are a bunch of different criteria for residency, including paying taxes and being a voter," said Meyers, 39, who has a 4.0 grade point average, is vice president of the student government at Honolulu Community College, and is involved in numerous volunteer projects.
"I'm a voter, but I don't pay taxes because I do volunteer work. What makes a resident?" she said. "Someone who makes a lot of money or someone who works for free in the community? If I worked at McDonald's or the UH bookstore, instead of with kids that need help, this wouldn't be a problem."
Late yesterday, UH President Evan Dobelle got involved in the issue and asked the committee to take another look at the situation and explain their decision to him.
But as it stands now, Meyers has lost her free ride for her junior and senior years at UH-Manoa. The Presidential Scholarship is worth about $17,000 over the two years and includes a cash stipend, travel money to be used as part of her major and free tuition.
And she was also told in a form letter from the committee that she now must cough up the $2,000 difference between the resident tuition she's been paying as a military dependent and the higher nonresident tuition. And, as she looks forward to HCC commencement ceremonies May 17, she has to pay it by today or face being kicked out.
However, HCC registrar Geri Imai has reassured Meyers that the letter was in error, and she will not be charged or kicked out.
With the situation still in flux, UH vice president for student affairs Doris Ching is also trying to make things right for Meyers, whom she calls an outstanding and deserving student. HCC Faculty Senate president David Cleveland echoes that.
"She's a splendid student. She's one of our major nominees for the USA Today Academic All-American award," Cleveland said.
In the mail to Meyers as of yesterday was another letter, this one informing her she has won the second scholarship she applied for — the Leon Rhodes Scholarship. Ching plans to add a tuition waiver from her small discretionary fund to make it almost equivalent to the Presidential Scholarship.
All of that is gratifying to Meyers, but it still doesn't answer her primary dilemma of statelessness, or solve the same problem for the next student who may face the issue and not be as assertive on her own behalf.
But it also doesn't change her intention to become a teacher in an underserved area of Hawai'i such as Kaua'i or Moloka'i when her husband gets out of the military in 2004.
"The deans at HCC have known my intention of wanting to be a teacher in Hawai'i ever since I've been here," Meyers said. "And I filed an appeal on my status, showing my voting record, driver's license, cable bills, my volunteer work and my intention to stay here. But they made me chattel of my husband (saying) I'm a resident of New York because he is."
She also noted: "Tell me why I'm not worthy of that scholarship. The money is important, but it's also something I can put on a rŽsumŽ later, that I won this.
"It's a state school and if the state says you're a resident (with voting rights and a Hawai'i driver's license) I don't see how UH can say that you're not."
CORRECTION: Doug Meyers serves in the U.S. Air Force. Information in an earlier version of this story posted on Thursday was incorrect because of a reporter's error.
