Lem Tucker Scholarship

The Lem Tucker Scholarship honors the late Lemuel Tucker, a CMU alumnus who made an enormous contribution to journalism by promoting the participation and success of minorities in print and electronic media, as well as general excellence in the practice of journalism. This award provides full tuition to a CMU student majoring in journalism, media arts, or integrative public relations.

Lem Tucker

Headshot of Lem Tucker, a greyscale image“It is a delicate job balancing black consciousness and the ethics of journalism. Ultimately, the only thing you can do is to be a good reporter.” - Lem Tucker (1938-1991). Beyond Ghetto Sniffing. Time magazine. April 6, 1970.

Five years after becoming NBC’s first African American reporter in 1965, Lem Tucker already had concluded that society’s race assumptions could never diminish journalistic integrity based on good reporting.

Undaunted by the skepticism of 1970s professionals of diverse backgrounds, Tucker advanced from NBC to ABC and CBS, where he gained national acclaim as a Washington bureau correspondent covering presidential campaigns, the Iranian hostage crisis, the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and many more historic events.

For the two decades until his untimely death in 1991, Tucker built a reputation that had been foreshadowed with his election as the first-ever African American CMU student body president. In spirit, the 1960 graduate never left his alma mater, returning often to acknowledge the lessons behind his Emmy Award-winning career.

“The honing of my speech skills, my dealings with people in student government and being the president of the student body – all those things went into the whole that is me,”  Tucker said during one Mount Pleasant campus visit.

CMU recognized Tucker’s professional success with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree in 1981 and an Alumni Recognition Award in 1985.

Today, his CMU legacy continues with the scholarship established in his honor in 1999. This prestigious, merit-based scholarship provides full tuition.

Tucker’s vision, leadership, commitment and social commentary have inspired some of CMU’s most talented and diverse students to follow his lead as they pursue successful journalism, communications and multimedia careers.

The Lem Tucker Scholarship

Lem Tucker Scholarship logo. Three profiles in succession in CMU colors, maroon and gold.The scholarship provides up to eight semesters of undergraduate tuition to an entering freshman and/or up to six semesters of undergraduate tuition to a transfer student.

Scholarship value

  • Full tuition, up to 30 credits per academic year
  • One award each year
  • Renewable up to an additional three years for freshmen or two years for transfer students

Selection criteria

The Lem Tucker Scholarship competition is open to all students regardless of race and ethnicity.

Freshman Student
  • A cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher
  • Must be accepted as a CMU freshman for fall 2025
Transfer Student
  • Proof that at least 24 credit hours from a community college will be completed prior to starting at CMU (transfers from four-year colleges are not eligible)
  • A grade point average of 3.3 or higher
  • Must be accepted as a transfer student for fall 2025

How to apply

To apply, candidates must submit all the following to the Scholarship Selection Committee through the Scholarship Universe portal. Materials must be submitted on or before December 31, 2025.

  • Completed scholarship application using the Scholarship Universe portal
  • A persuasive cover letter addressed to the selection committee expressing
  • A desire to receive the scholarship
  • At least two letters of recommendation, preferably from a teacher, professional mentor, or advisor that can speak to the applicant’s ability to express themselves in writing and their interest and experience in the fields of journalism, media, public relations, and communications
  • Up to five samples of the applicant’s published print, broadcast, social media, or related communications work that tells a story or raises awareness (i.e., clipping from a student newspaper, a direct link to online video site or other publication, social media campaigns, blog posts)
  • An essay not to exceed two pages (1.5 or double-spaced). In your essay, please discuss the aspect of Lem Tucker’s legacy that stands out to you and how you would continue to advance his legacy of excellence
  • Admission to CMU and CMU Global ID is required to access the Scholarship Universe portal

Scholarship Universe

Scholarship Universe is CMU’s centralized scholarship platform, created to connect students with internal and external scholarship opportunities. You will use Scholarship Universe to apply for the Lem Tucker scholarship. To do this you will need your activated CMU Global ID to log into the Scholarship Universe portal at this link. After logging in and answering some initial questions, Scholarship Universe connects you to donor-based internal (CMU) scholarship opportunities for which you qualify. You can find the Lem Tucker scholarship by searching for “Lem Tucker” in the search bar in the upper right corner of the page. Once you are in the CAM Application where the  Lem Tucker scholarship is, you can provide the necessary information, provide links to external sites with examples of your video work, and upload files of printed or written work (files limited to PDF, PNG, and JPEG; 20MB file size limit) directly to the application.

To maintain the scholarship, the recipient must:

  1. Maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA or better
  2. Actively participate each semester in some form of professional media, campus media, or co-curricular student activity (i.e. Central Michigan Life, Grand Central Magazine, PR Central, News Central, MHTV, WMHW-FM, etc)
  3. Maintain a degree track majoring in journalism, media arts or integrative public relations
  4. Earn a minimum of 24 undergraduate credit hours within a fall and spring semester sequence each academic year

The selection committee may choose to interview top candidates. An alternate will be selected in the event the scholarship recipient does not fulfill requirements.

The School of Communication, Journalism, and Media

The School of Communication, Journalism, and Media at Central Michigan University is dedicated to empowering students with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in today's rapidly evolving media landscape. With a range of programs and courses, we offer hands-on training in strategic communication, journalism, media production, and more.

Our journalism program is accredited by The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), a distinction held by only one other Michigan university. Our program balances classroom theory with service learning and other hands-on experiences that help you develop the skills required for entry-level positions in the media, as well as related professions and for entrepreneurial media-related careers.

In the Media Arts program you will learn media skills in the classroom that you can apply in hands-on practical experiences in our co-curricular activities. Create media content with other students like you who want to make an impact through producing and managing audio and video content for radio, television, news, sports, YouTube, TikTok, or podcasts. Develop the skills and put them into practice through experiential learning from your first day on campus.

In the Integrative Public Relations program you will study communication strategies, principles, tactics, and initiatives that further the goals of an organization. You will learn how to use social and digital media to promote and advance the public image of businesses and organizations and gain hands-on experience through student organizations including the Public Relations Student Society of America and PR Central, the student run public relations agency doing work for real clients in the community.