Mormon Student's Suit Against West Virginia Scholarship Board Settled

According to the Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail, on Friday the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the state's Promise Scholarship Board agreed to settle a lawsuit that had been filed by West Virginia University student David Haws. The suit challenged Promise scholarship rules that has prevented Haws from keeping his scholarship after he took a two-year leave of absence to serve a Mormon church mission. Haws scholarship was reinstated in October, and earlier this month the Board voted to change its leave policy. (See prior posting.) The last step leading to the parties signing a joint stipulation settling the case was the state's reimbursement of legal fees to the ACLU which had filed suit on behalf of Haws. Despite this, in January Haws will transfer to Southern Virginia University, a private school that has awarded him a full scholarship.