Twenty-five Kansas University students received $1,000 scholarships for attending a Sept. 14 football game. Tim Miller doesn’t think that’s a good policy.

Miller, professor and chairman of religious studies at KU, said Thursday at a University Council meeting that he thought KU scholarships should be based on need or academic merit, not whether a student was a sports fan.

“I was really appalled KU offered these bribes called scholarships,” Miller said. “What does that say to the scholars on this campus?”

For the second straight year, KU students who wore free “KU First” T-shirts from the KU Endowment Association gained free admission to the football game. Endowment officials selected 25 students randomly to receive the scholarships.

Miller asked members of University Council which includes faculty, staff and students to approve a resolution urging officials to base scholarships on “academic achievement or promise, need, or conduct directly related to the academic mission of the university.” Otherwise, he said, the money shouldn’t be called a scholarship.

Members of the University Council which eventually tabled the issue until the next meeting seemed split on the resolution.

“The people who were studying that day had no chance of winning a scholarship, whereas the football fans did,” said Nancy Baym, assistant professor of communication studies.

Andy Knopp, a Manhattan junior, said the money was distributed in the way the donors Dick and Jeanne Tinberg of Leawood intended.

“When a donor gives money to a purpose like that, we act like that’s the gospel,” Knopp said.

After the meeting, John Scarffe, an Endowment Association spokesman, said the T-shirts and scholarships were designed to publicize the association’s $500 million campaign.

“Home football games provide the largest gathering of students, alumni and the general public of any venue on campus,” he said.

He also disagreed with Miller’s assertion that the money isn’t technically a “scholarship.”

“Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines a scholarship as ‘a grant in aid to a student,’ which is what the scholarships awarded at the football game were,” Scarffe said. “We hope no one would suggest that the students receiving these scholarships were not deserving of them.”