Although Morehead State University will host the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program for the fourth straight summer, the university will not have the opportunity to do so for the next three.

Al Baldwin, Morehead City Council member, made the announcement Monday, June 8 at a regular monthly city council meeting.

“We got beat by politics,” Baldwin said. “I am angry and I will remain angry.”

MSU was essentially beat by Murray State University, according to Amanda Baldwin, MSU’s coordinator of GSP activities.

“We did not receive the contract for the next cycle which is 2010 to 2012,” she said. “There’s a process and we submit a proposal to be a host campus. The board of directors for GSP goes over all those proposals and they make their decision.”

There were five schools that submitted applications to host GSP, including MSU, Bellarmine University in Louisville, Centre College in Danville, Murray State University and Pikeville College.

The GSP board of directors selected Bellarmine, Centre and Murray.

“We are deeply disappointed as a public institution and as a university in east Kentucky,” Amanda Baldwin said.

The 2009 GSP opened Saturday, June 20 and runs through July 24. Scholars will have a major and secondary area of study with day and evening classes and seminars. Each student will live in campus housing.

“We are excited about sharing the campus with some of Kentucky’s top high school students,” Dr. Wayne Andrews, MSU president, said. “This is a wonderful opportunity as we move toward our goal of becoming the best public regional university in the South.”

The GSP program was established in 1983 for outstanding Kentucky high school students who have completed their junior year.