"Giving students generous financial-aid packages appears to increase their level of civic engagement after college, according to research findings being presented here this week at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "A study by Shouping Hu, an associate professor of higher education at Florida State University, examined the results of surveys administered to about 3,300 minority students during and after college. Nearly a third of the students surveyed were recipients of Gates Millennium Scholarships, which are awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation based on a combination of merit and need. The scholarships cover most of the students' college costs. Mr. Hu examined how academically and socially engaged the scholarship and nonscholarship students were in college, as measured by their responses to survey questions. Students were asked, for example, how much they discussed what they were learning with faculty members and how much they participated in community-service activities outside class."