April 13, 1999
HUGHES SCHOLARSHIP WILL BENEFIT PHILADELPHIA STUDENTS
Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu
State Sen. Vincent Hughes has presented a check for nearly $84,000 to the Fund for the Advancement of the State System of Higher Education, Inc., to help fund a new scholarship program in memory of his father, James A. Hughes.
The elder Hughes was a founding member of the State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors, serving on the Board from 1983 to 1996. He died in July 1997.
The James A. Hughes Memorial Scholarship Fund will provide 27 annual scholarships of $1,000 each to students from Philadelphia who attend State System schools. Fourteen of the scholarships will go to students who enroll at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. One scholarship each will go to a student attending one of the 13 other state-owned universities.
“My father understood very well the importance of a good education,” said Sen. Hughes. “He worked very hard as a member of the Board of Governors to help create a first rate system of higher education.”
In addition to serving on the Board of Governors, James Hughes was a longtime member of Cheyney University’s Council of Trustees.
The funds for the new scholarship program were raised through private contributions, corporate sponsorships and the first James A. Hughes Memorial Scholarship Golf Outing held last summer. The second annual golf outing will be held Aug. 23 at the Country Club at Eagle Lodge in Lafayette Hill.
The State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, offering more than 215 undergraduate and more than 100 graduate degree programs. Nearly 350,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney (and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.