It’s no secret that many Loyola students have been less than pleased when they found out they would not be receiving their endowment scholarships for this upcoming school year.

 Since the stock market turned for the worse in March, Loyola’s funds have also been affected, and many scholarships that are held in stocks have lost so much money that a portion of the money taken out in some and other scholarships have ceased to exist completely.

  To make up these losses, the university has been seeking private donors to cover lost scholarships. Some donors who originally established endowments also gave money to cover lost scholarships this year.

Chris Wiseman, associate vice president of major gifts, said they’re assuring donors that Loyola is being more conservative in their investments and their money will be more protected.

“We are doing everything we can with the help of the donors,” he said. “The same things that are effecting the endowments are affecting our donors too. Some of them want to wait and see how the market plays out before they donate more money.”

 He said many students have been unhappy their scholarships have been taken away, but the Office of Financial Aid wants to do everything they can to improve the situation.

“Many of us dealing with the situation are Loyola graduates who were on scholarship,” Wiseman said. “We know what it’s like, and we’re doing everything we can to help those involved.”

Wiseman also mentioned that even though the market is picking up, that doesn’t mean each scholarship will be fully restored. 

“While the stock market is up this quarter, the losses that many of the endowment funds took were so significant that it’ll take time to be able to fund the scholarships again,” he said. “Even if the market has an incredible rebound, realistically Loyola may still have the same problem at some level for the near future.”

Allison Baznik can be reached at [email protected]