Wayne Reitz Scholars Program

The J. Wayne Reitz Scholars Program is leadership and merit-based scholarship for students at the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The scholarship offers a yearly $2,500 stipend that may be renewed for up to three years. The program was created in 1997 and named in honor of the university's fifth president, J. Wayne Reitz, who served from 1955 to 1967. In addition to leading an agrressive construction campaign that added over 300 structures to the university's physical plant, Reitz was remembered as being close to the student body and was able to peacefully implement racial integration of the university, the first institution in the State University System of Florida to do so. The first African-American student was enrolled in the College of Law during his term, and Reitz's close relationship to the student body was instrumental in curbing attempts to resist the court order to integrate.

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