Daily Pioneer News

UW-Platteville criminal justice students, like these shown at Criminal Justice Career Day, will soon benefit from a department-wide scholarship that will be offered for the first time this spring. UWP criminal justice alumni are sought to contribute to the scholarship fund.

PLATTEVILLE - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville criminal justice program is among the largest and most respected in the state, and through the support of its faculty and alumni, a new scholarship has been established that will aid the program's current and future students.

University officials are seeking contributions to the UWP Criminal Justice Scholarship endowment fund. The first $500 scholarship award will be granted this fall, and criminal justice faculty hope to increase the endowment in order to offer multiple scholarship awards each year. "We're hopeful to get enough funds to be able to offer scholarships to students in a number of areas in criminal justice," said Joe Lomax, chair of the UWP Department of Criminal Justice. "The greater the endowment, the greater our ability to award those students who are eligible and deserving, regardless of career pursuits." There is currently only one other scholarship offered exclusively to UWP criminal justice students, and that scholarship is tailored specifically for students pursuing careers in corrections. Faculty members wanted to be able to offer a scholarship to students in any criminal justice career track, such as corrections, policing, private security, law, social work or crime analysis. Lomax himself contributed the first $1,000 to the new UWP Criminal Justice Scholarship fund. "I think it's important to have scholarships to encourage and reward a student pursuing criminal justice," Lomax said. "With students having to shoulder more of their education expenses, this will provide some degree of relief from that financial burden. We hope it will serve to encourage students to achieve and continue to pursue their educational objectives in criminal justice."

Criminal justice alumni or other interested parties who wish to contribute to the UWP Criminal Justice Scholarship endowment fund may contact Alma Valencia, UWP University Relations, at 608-342-1031.

Contact: Alma Valencia, University Relations, 608-342-1031, valencia@uwplatt.edu Prepared by: Dan Lehnherr, UWP Public Relations, 608-342-1194, lehnherd@uwplatt.edu