By now, word of next year’s 6 percent tuition increase is old news. However, student plans to broach that financial upsurge are still under consideration. Would $1,000 turn your head as you ponder next semester’s bills? If you are an upperclassman and have something to show for your time at this institution, you may now be able to find such assistance on campus. This has not always been the case. Five years ago, in the spring of 2001, the Student Government Association passed legislation to create a new scholarship. Intended for current students, it addressed the conception that most SLU financial aid targeted freshmen, leaving returning students to fend for themselves in the face of rising college costs. Although upperclass scholarships immediately found a niche in the SLU psyche, SGA struggled with funding proposals. Initial attempts to squeeze $3 million from budget shuffling and a proposed 1-percent tuition increase in 2002 flopped miserably. Upperclass scholarships are now established. Applications are available to all students in the SGA office. And, as of last night’s SGA meeting, funding had already reached the $25,000 necessary to invest, rather than pool, funds. With smart investing, the program should continue to grow long after this generation of SLU students. Yet despite this effort-and perhaps because of it-several voices question the importance and economic sensibility of these scholarships.From one perspective, scholarships for upperclassmen seem ridiculous. Arguably, the purpose of University scholarship aid is to draw the best incoming students and give them a fiscally pragmatic reason to enroll. During the past few decades, this strategy has worked well for SLU: The average ACT score has risen to 26.4, the average high school GPA to 3.69, and the number of applications received last year to 8,105.Furthermore, we must question, “Why should an institution pay its matriculates to keep studying?” This question seems particularly relevant at SLU, where monetary assistance abounds-approximately 80 percent of students here receive some sort of financial aid. Some minute evidence might be found in SLU’s transfer and retention rates. Perhaps the promise of future aid would encourage students to stay at SLU. Approximately 75 percent of today’s freshmen will graduate here in 2009. The greatest percent loss will likely transpire summer; SLU usually loses 15 percent of its freshmen before they become sophomores. These rates are comparable to other Jesuit universities’, but lag behind the stellar first-year retention rates-97 to 98 percent-of Georgetown and Notre Dame, schools SLU hopes to rival as the best Catholic school in the nation, by 2015.But increased student retention, although a possible perk, is not the force driving upperclass scholarships. If it were, more and larger scholarships would be necessary. The purpose, instead, is threefold: Upperclass scholarships should motivate current students, reward students already dedicated to University ideals and seed future relationships between students and the University.To be effective, upperclass scholarships must encourage students to be involved in the University community and live the school’s mission. Whether in service, influence or activism, such aid motivates students to keep giving to SLU in the hope that SLU will give back to them. Delayed financial incentive encourages students to serve throughout college.Upperclass scholarship funding used to be scraped together and distributed by SGA alone, an undertaking potentially short-lived, as it would have to be passed from one administration to another throughout the years. Now, the backing of the administration guarantees the scholarships a sense of permanency and fiscal accountability. If scholarships are to grow in effectiveness, they must also increase in amount and spread to more students. And although we may not directly experience an era of $5 million in upperclass scholarship funding, somebody in the future will. SGA senators are not required to participate in fund-raising solicitations, but nonetheless, they must. They, in conjunction with business and student organization leaders, must contact SGA officials and offer to help with phone-a-thons raising funds for this investment. Not only will they provide financial pick-me-up for deserving students, but they will instill a vehicle for increased service and cohesiveness at Saint Louis University.