For the past several years, Eastern students have been awarded scholarships through a state vanity license plate program.

Other universities throughout Illinois also have been a part of the program which allocates funds generated through each license plate into scholarship programs.

The license plates are custom made for each university and are sold for $118, of which $25 goes to the university to be re-allocated into scholarships for students, Pat Westwood, administrative clerk for the Secretary of State’s office, said.

In addition, each year the collegiate plate is renewed it costs $105, of which $25 goes to the specific university, Amy Spelman, associate alumni director at Western Illinois University, said Monday.

Westwood said a university must first generate 850 requests for the collegiate license plates plates to become a part of the program.

It is a state mandate that the money generated through the program must go to student financial aid.

Eastern generates between $12,000 to $15,000 per year through the collegiate plates, which is then redistributed into scholarships by the EIU Foundation, Kim Furumo, director of the budget office, said Monday.

The EIU foundation distributes that money into the legacy scholarships, which are for any child or grandchild of an Eastern graduate. One additional scholarship is given to any child or grandchild of a current member of Eastern’s alumni association. Last year, the foundation awarded 12 $1,000 scholarships from the money generated by the license plates, Jerilyn Hutson, office systems specialist for alumni services, said Monday.

In comparison to other state universities, Eastern and Northern Illinois University generate the least amount of money through the license plate program; however, each university puts those funds into scholarships.

Ken Zehnder, assistant director of state and federal relations at Northern, said Monday that for the 2002 year, they have received $10,075 from the license plate program.

The University of Illinois also is a part of the license plate program and gains about $109,000 from it each year. Of that allotment, $101,000 is given to the university in Urbana for scholarships. In 2000, 202 awards were given to students at Urbana for $500 each through the program.

The University of Illinois at Chicago receives a little more than $7,000 of that $109,000 and the University of Illinois at Springfield is given almost $1,000 for scholarships through the license plate program, Randy Kangas, director of planning and budgeting and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, said.