Objective: The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute will make its programs available to individuals who may not otherwise be able to attend.

Method: The Institute will maintain a double-blind tuition scholarship fund to provide tuition assistance to target groups.

Target for Scholarships: Legislators and staff, State Government employees, non-profit public interest groups.  (See Priority of Scholarship Distribution below.)

Method of Distribution: Each course announcement will contain information about requesting scholarships. For each course, no more than three full tuition scholarships and three half scholarships may be awarded to six recipients. No individual recipient may receive more than one award for each course or event. No individual recipient may receive more than two awards on an annual basis. The applicant for a scholarship must be a member of the target groups.  The limits on distributions are maximums. Actual awards will be made at the discretion of the Institute Director based on availability of funds. Awards will be made on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified recipients according to a priority system. Recipients will receive no information about the specific scholarship donors.

Priority of Scholarship Distribution Scholarships will be awarded first to Institute members who are qualified as non-profit or government. This group includes all Wisconsin legislators and staff.  When requests from this group are less than the maximum number of scholarships, non-member, qualifying organizations from Wisconsin may be awarded scholarships.  Finally, if scholarships remain after the first two priority groups have been served, non-Wisconsin qualifying organizations may be considered. The Director will decide on a cutoff date for first priority requests for each conference or event. After this time, second priority requests will be filled, followed by third priority requests.

Funds:  The scholarship donations will be deposited to the Foundation Account. Upon awarding a scholarship, the funds will be transferred to the Institute's revenue account for the program. The recipient will not receive the funds directly. Funds that are unused at the end of a fiscal year will be carried over to the next year indefinitely.

Decision to Award Funds:  The final decision on awards rests with the Institute Director based on the guidelines set forth above. The Director and Chair of the Executive Committee will consider appeals for special circumstances.

Confidentiality of Process:  No attendee who receives scholarship assistance money will be identified at the program or event site in any way. All attendees will receive all course materials to be used at the event or educational conference. The Institute staff will keep a confidential file containing names of scholarship recipients so that the Director can limit awards to two per year for individuals.

Feedback Process:  Each scholarship recipient will be asked to provide written or oral feedback on the scholarship process, the course content, and the benefits realized.  This information will be summarized for Executive Board review. No recipients will be identified by name in the summary.

Compliance with Ethics Laws:  The Wisconsin Ethics Board has reviewed this scholarship concept and determined that the proposed plan has no conflict with laws administered by the Ethics Board.

Changes to Scholarship Policy:  Changes must be made by a majority of the Executive Board.