SIU and three other state universities have refused to release the names of students who receive full-tuition waiver’s from Illinois state legislators, a University official says.

Each year, a state legislator can waive two four-year public university tuitions. The state law requires that the recipient’s be from the legislator’s district. One recipient of the waiver must attend the University of Illinois and the other must attend any of the other state universities.

Some state legislators called for eliminating the state law Monday after The News-Gazette of Champaign reported the names of students who received the waivers at Eastern and Western Illinois universities. The legislators said the power to give waivers is abused by legislators who award relatives of political associates and campaign contributors.

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The News-Gazette filed a Freedom of Information Act against the universities to get the names of students at those institutions whose tuition has been waived since 1989.

SIU, Northern Illinois University, Illinois State University and the University of Illinois have all refused to release the names of students granted the full-tuition waivers.

Lee Ellen Starkweather, SIU legal counsel, said SIU is not giving out the names of University students who receive tuition waivers. She said three media sources, The News Gazette, the Journal Star out of Peoria and The Associated Press have filed state Freedom of Information Acts against the University to get the names of the students.

Starkweather said the University is not sure how it should deal with this situation, but said SIU wants to protect the rights of its students.

It’s a touchy situation when you’re dealing with individuals and financial aid, she said. We have to make sure we’re not violating anyone’s privacy or the Buckley Amendment.

The Buckley Amendment is a federal law that bars disclosure of educational records.

Starkweather said she is not sure what information would be released even if the Freedom of Information Act is filed.

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Sharon Brown, from the Illinois Senate Republicans’ press staff, said Sen. Harry Woodyard, R-Chrisman, sponsored legislation last year to get rid of the tuition waiver program.

Brown said Woodyard does not think the tuition waiver is a fair program because when the tuitions are waived, the universities must absorb the costs. She said General Assembly tuition waivers cost universities about $2.2 million a year.

He doesn’t believe the General Assembly should be in the business of granting tuition waivers, she said.

Pam Britton, SIUC director of financial aid, said between SIUC and the SIU Medical School, 140 students received the General Assembly tuition waiver in fiscal year 1995. She said the tuition waiver’s cost SIU $470,296 that year.

Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said he separates the tuition waivers into four 1-year tuition waivers for the University of Illinois and four 1-year tuition waivers for another public university. He said he does this because it allows him to give eight tuition waivers a year instead of two.

Bost said he has voted to get rid of the waiver program because some legislators misuse this power. He said he thinks it is a shame to get rid of the scholarship program because the tuition waivers allow many students to go to college at a reduced rate, but he said the abuse of the program needs to be stopped.

Several legislators give out the scholarships for patronage jobs, and they can do that, he said. I have an ethical problem with this.

Bost said he does not choose which students get the waivers from his district. He said he has a committee of seven people with different political affiliations who are representative of Jackson, Perry and Union counties review the students’ applications.

He said the list of chosen applicants are given to him, and that is when everyone finds out which students receive the tuition waiver.

Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said he decided to reorganize the way student waivers are given because he has heard criticisms of the program. Luechtefeld took the position after Ralph Dunn, of Du Quoin, retired in September.

There have been criticisms of how they (the waivers) are handled, he said. I want to try to create a situation where there is no room for criticism.

Luechtefeld said he has chosen three superintendents to head a committee to decide which students receive the waivers. He said the superintendents represent St. Clair, Washington and Jackson counties and will pick the scholarship recipients.