Undergraduate students at the University of Texas at San Antonio who already receive tuition coverage through the institution's Bold Promise program will soon benefit from substantial new financial assistance aimed at covering everyday living expenses, thanks to a major contribution from a longtime benefactor.
Philanthropist Harvey Najim has pledged $5 million to establish the Harvey Najim Bold Promise Scholarship at UT San Antonio. The university announced the major gift this week, noting that the funds are specifically designated to alleviate non-tuition financial burdens, such as housing rent, food and groceries, transportation, and course textbooks.
The multi-year funding model is structured to distribute $500,000 annually over the next decade. By providing steady, long-term backing, the initiative seeks to ensure that high-achieving, lower- and middle-income students can complete their academic programs without being derailed by soaring living costs.
While the university's existing Bold Promise program already guarantees 100% coverage of tuition and mandatory fees for four full academic years, university administrators emphasized that tuition is only one component of college affordability. For many undergraduates, balancing multiple jobs just to pay for rent, transit, and food often threatens to undermine their educational focus and timely degree progress.
Expressing his motivation behind the new scholarship endowment, Najim highlighted the profound role that accessible higher learning plays in transforming regional socioeconomic dynamics. He noted that education changes lives and strengthens entire communities, adding that having witnessed the determination and potential of UT San Antonio students firsthand, he firmly believes every learner deserves the opportunity to achieve academic success.
UT San Antonio President Taylor Eighmy commended the gift, emphasizing that it reinforces Najim’s enduring confidence in the student body and in the capacity of higher education to reshape personal trajectories. Eighmy stated that this generous financial commitment builds directly upon the countless pathways Najim has established for young scholars throughout the university and the broader region.
The latest $5 million gift pushes Najim’s lifetime giving to UT San Antonio past the $25 million milestone. This cumulative support firmly cements his status as one of the most consequential and transformative individual donors in the institution's history, particularly regarding student-centered programs and campus initiatives.
To receive support from the newly created scholarship, students must first meet the criteria for the Bold Promise initiative, which requires recipients to be Texas residents from families with an annual household income of up to $100,000, while also meeting established academic standards for incoming freshmen or transfer students.
Additionally, the new Najim scholarship features specific regional and institutional parameters. It is tailored to assist Bold Promise scholars enrolled at UTSA, students at the UT San Antonio Health Science Center, and students transferring into Bold Promise from the Alamo Colleges' AlamoPROMISE program.
Geographically, recipients of the Najim scholarship must reside in Bexar County or within one of seven designated surrounding counties: Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, or Wilson. This regional focus aims to keep local talent anchored in the greater San Antonio metropolitan area.
The broader Bold Promise framework has grown significantly since it was first launched in December 2019. In its initial form, the tuition-free pathway was limited to first-time freshmen who ranked in the top 25% of their graduating high school class and whose annual family income did not exceed $50,500.
The program has since expanded its scope to include qualified transfer students. Furthermore, in 2024, the University of Texas System raised the family income eligibility ceiling across all nine of its academic campuses to $100,000, a sweeping policy shift that extended tuition-free higher education eligibility to an estimated 7 million additional Texas families. Since its inception, the Bold Promise initiative has supported more than 5,000 students at UTSA.
The new scholarship also builds upon Najim's targeted efforts to eliminate basic-needs insecurity among the campus population. Just last year, the philanthropist donated $1.25 million in a joint initiative with UTSA and the San Antonio Food Bank, allocating $125,000 annually over 10 years to maintain and stock student food pantries at both the Loop 1604 and downtown campuses.
With this new $5 million commitment addressing housing, textbooks, meals, and transit, university leaders believe that eligible Bold Promise scholars will be far better positioned to devote their time and energy to their studies, rather than struggling to make ends meet outside the classroom.
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