Ed officials fear scholarship cuts

STAFF WRITER

[email protected]

The upcoming January legislative session may bring with it more potential changes to higher education.

Eastern New Mexico University and Clovis Community College officials said the state lottery scholarship program may be affected if more cuts are made during the session, although cuts and adjustments are not official, and there is no telling what will be adjusted at this point.

During last week’s ENMU Board of Regents meeting, ENMU-Roswell President John Madden told regents he was concerned about potential losses to the scholarship.

“If this keeps dropping from 90 to 80 to 70 (percent) to whatever it’s going to go, I don’t know if we can continue to do that or not,” Madden said at the meeting. “We are well over 70 percent first generation college students. We have students who need that money to go to school, or they will not be able to go to school.”

ENMU President Steven Gamble and Vice President of Business Affairs Scott Smart both said Wednesday that there is anticipation for cuts but nothing official.

“We don’t know for sure it’s going down,” said Gamble. “Until the legislation meets, we’re just anticipating what might happen.”

Taxes from alcohol sales are a major contribution to the scholarship, Gamble said.

“If it doesn’t continue, the lottery might shrink,” said Gamble. “If it does, then it might not dip at all.”

“We suspect adjustments to that program are coming,” said Smart. “It’s a great program. I’m hoping the state will find some positive solution for the program. It’s vitally important for our students.”

CCC President Becky Rowley said there is typically just talk about how the scholarship will change before the legislative session, and CCC is not expecting extensive changes at this time.

“In general, there is talk about changing the eligibility requirements, raising the GPA (grade point average) and limiting the number of semesters,” said Rowley. “All of the four-year schools pay 90 percent of the average tuition. In the community college sector the average is $660.”

With full-time tuition at $468 per semester at CCC, Rowley said changes would have to be really significant for them to see an impact.

“It’s really hard to say at this time,” said Rowley. “If they did change it, I don’t think they would change it that much. They always say that will be revisited if the fund seems to be insufficient.”