College students are poor.

There’s no denying this when a candy bar is your lunch, you spend money you don’t have and you order CDs with financial aid.

That’s partly why we have scholarships. For many, applications ranging from an essay about recycling to full-rides were what comprised much of our homework during our senior year in high school.

Often, filling them out became boring and repetitive.

However, the chance to win these dollars for college was the driving factor that led some seniors to apply for countless numbers of them.

Academic scholarships usually consider a student’s academic performance, financial need and extracurricular activities. However, there may soon be a new factor to consider — virginity.

The University of Arizona is currently reviewing a proposed scholarship for $250,000 named after Arizona alumna Sally Keith, 90.

The scholarship would be given to American Indian women in Arizona with preference to those whom have “been able to say ‘no’ to sex,” according to an information sheet distributed to the state’s high schools this fall. The sheet also said applicants would be judged more on personality than grades. The scholarship would cover tuition, room and board for $5,000 a year for four years. Money-wise, not a bad deal.

Keith said she hopes the scholarship may influence young women to not get pregnant and plan for the future. Hardly an illegitimate reason.

However, this scholarship has some flaws.

Why is it only for American Indian women? Teen pregnancies happen to women of all races, not just American Indians. Therefore, it is unfair to include only American Indians for the scholarship. Besides, it presents a bad stereotype.

Judging someone for a scholarship mainly on personality implies an interview is involved in the selection process. But what does one ask the applicant?

Tell me about a time when you had to work closely with someone? Tell me about a time when someone misunderstood something you said or wrote? What was the outcome?

In what context would you answer such questions?

For a scholarship that takes celibacy into consideration, it may be tempting for applicants who don’t qualify to lie. Besides, it isn’t something the selection committee would be able to prove or the applicants would be willing to prove.

Money is an interesting factor with the Keith scholarship, especially considering that $250,000 is more than what most university officials earn.

This scholarship would do wonders to the balance on the monthly university bill. A student could have $5,000 of her college expenses for her freshman, sophomore and junior years.

But she gets married her senior year. Never mind the fact she is not pregnant. Does she lose the scholarship?

While Keith’s intentions for American Indians are good, they don’t reflect that in the scholarship criteria. Instead it labels American Indians in a negative light.

The scholarship attempts to “delve too deeply into an applicant’s personal life,” as Navajo woman Antoinette Davis said.

If this scholarship is approved by Arizona officials, there is no reason to believe all applications are boring and repetitive anymore.

If this scholarship is approved, then why not have a scholarship for everything else, like non-virgin men and women? virgin men? bar-goers? gamblers? turkey lovers? pumpkin pie lovers?

Or those who couldn’t eat Thanksgiving dinner because they were in misery from getting their wisdom teeth removed over break?

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Shuva Rahim is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Davenport.