By Rae Arnett
The New Mexico Lottery Scholarship has allowed me to make it to my senior year with less than $5,000 in student loans. Several students have no debt because of the Lottery Scholarship.
The loans I do have were used to fund summer classes. If three summers ended up costing me $5,000, how much would four years cost? Many out-of-state students come to Eastern New Mexico University for its affordability yet are still leaving with $15,000 or more in loans.
The Lottery Scholarship is one of the few incentives college students have to stay in New Mexico.
However, the Lottery Scholarship is nearly bankrupt. Consequently, the New Mexico Legislature is considering major changes to the scholarship.
The New Mexico State Senate approved Senate Bill 347 February 20. The bill would change the lottery scholarship to keep it alive.
Governor Susanna Martinez still has to sign the bill into effect, but many students should be thinking about how the proposed changes will affect them.
ENMU President Steven Gamble said that Senate Bill 347 is great because it is a solution to the lottery problem that will still fund all students.
Lottery funds would be dispersed equally to New Mexico students depending on the amount in the scholarship fund. For example, if the fund only has 80 percent of what it needs to cover full tuition costs, each eligible student only would have 80 percent of his or her tuition covered.
Senate Bill 347 also reduces the number of funded semesters from eight to seven and increases required enrollment hours from 12 to 15 to be considered a full-time student. Only four-year universities will face the change of minimum-hour requirements.
University officials across New Mexico are concerned about the potential negative enrollment impact the bill could create.
The Lottery Scholarship reduction “could affect enrollment” according to Gamble. However, he did not necessarily think such a reduction “will be a large number.”
Less enrollment and fewer semester credit hours could mean less state funding for ENMU.
ENMU guaranteed funding for Lottery Scholarship students and “will help this year’s freshman class to have tuition covered in the coming fall semester,” according to Gamble.
The Greyhound Guarantee will fill the gap between what the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship pays and what a student’s tuition actually costs. So, for example, if the Lottery Scholarship gives a student 80 percent of his or her tuition, the Greyhound Guarantee will add an additional 20 percent so that a student’s tuition is fully paid. The Greyhound Guarantee, however, only covers four of the eight semesters.
There is some disagreement by students about whether funding underclassmen instead of upperclassmen is the right approach.
“I think the upperclassmen should receive funds for full tuition over freshmen because we have completed more hours and there seems to be a higher drop-out rate among freshman,” said sophomore Karah Tooley.
However, freshman Hayes Frost believes that freshmen should receive the funds because they have had less time with a fully funded lottery and will be dealing with the new shortage of funds for longer.