College: When the rich get scholarships

Should a multimillionaire’s son get a free scholarship to a university that’s slashing its budget and raising tuition? asked Dennis Romero in LAWeekly.com. “If that son plays football well, guess so.” The kid in question is Justin Combs—son of hip-hop impresario and clothing mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs—who recently won a $54,000 per year football scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles. Most people think an 18-year-old whose dad is worth about $550 million—and who gave him a $360,000 Maybach sports car for his 16th birthday— shouldn’t get a free ride to “a school where student tuition and fees have nearly tripled in the last 10 years.” Diddy should do the decent thing and give back the money, said Patt Morrison in the Los Angeles Times. Better still, he could cut a check to UCLA for a “matching scholarship for some talented young scholar who couldn’t otherwise afford to study there.”

Mini-Diddy is hardly the first rich kid to win a scholarship, said Brian Kinel in Bleacher

Report.com. I don’t recall anyone complaining when Archie Manning’s boys Eli and Peyton won football scholarships at state universities. But their dad wasn’t an African-American hip-hop mogul whose lifestyle might offend middle-class sensibilities. “Could that be it?” Instead of lambasting Justin, we should be lauding his achievements. “Not only is the 5-foot-9, 170-pound cornerback an outstanding football player,” he also graduated high school with an A-minus average. Three other colleges offered the kid a scholarship, said David Haglund in Slate.com, and UCLA may yet benefit from having Combs attend. His dad called the scholarship offer from UCLA “one of the proudest moments of my life.” The proud papa might one day show his appreciation with a hefty endowment.

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Diddy’s boy earned this scholarship on the field and in the classroom, said Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune. “But let’s be real”: People are angry because a rich man’s son is going to college for free, while so many Americans can’t afford to send their own kids. In a nation of startling inequality, college tuitions are soaring while grants are shrinking. As a result, many smart, promising kids have little chance of reaching the middle class—or even staying in it. “As we see doors closing on opportunity for advancement,” Combs’s scholarship becomes a “visible symbol of our frustration.” Don’t blame him. Blame our “brain-dead” leaders.