Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently signed House Bill 89 into law, increasing graduate student funding and expanding scholarship eligibility. Taken on Sunday, April 13.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill Tuesday, April 8 to increase funding for eligible graduate students, allowing them to now receive 100% of tuition and fees.
The now-law will widen the scope of eligibility and the amount awarded to graduate students via the Graduate Scholarship Act.
The Graduate Scholarship was created by the New Mexico State Legislature with the New Mexico Higher Education Department to increase graduate enrollment of underrepresented groups at public post-secondary institutions, according to University of New Mexico Graduate Studies.
Previously, the GSA awarded $7,200 per year for tuition and fees to eligible graduate students, leaving some paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket to make up the difference, according to UNM Dean of Graduate Studies Maria Lane, based on an average cost of $4,000 per semester. The language is now updated to read “one hundred percent of tuition and fees.”
Furthermore, a past requirement for eligibility was enrollment in an assistantship program — think research and teaching assistants — which typically included coverage of tuition. But now, that requirement can be subverted by maintaining a 3.0 GPA if an assistantship or work study isn’t manageable.
A remaining question is whether or not said tuition coverage by a UNM apprenticeship would exclude students from also receiving financial aid through the GSA. Lane said UNM Graduate Studies was still awaiting an answer on the distinction from the New Mexico Higher Education Department as of Friday, April 11.
In terms of eligibility, the law removes United States citizenship as a requirement, instead limiting the pool of candidates to existing residents of New Mexico.
The change that may most affect graduate students is the change to the maximum time funding can be reapplied for: eight semesters for all students enrolled in at least six credit hours of a graduate field of study, or until a degree is received by the student. In the past, this was limited to the first and second years of a master’s degree and the first, second and third years of a doctoral degree.
“Every scholarship opportunity that we can add or that we can broaden or that we can make more flexible is a win for us,” Lane said.
The Graduate and Professional Student Association has been involved with the bill since 2021, according to GPSA President Michel Rivera Ramirez, with its main objective being raising the amount of money awarded to students. He said that while $7,200 was a sizable amount of money in 1991 — the last time the bill was substantially amended — it was time to update it for the monetary needs of today’s graduate students.
He also said he hopes the bill will help the state as a whole to maintain graduates and professionals amid what he called a big shortage of the latter, especially in rural areas.
“We’re very proud to have done something that meets the needs of UNM and New Mexico as a whole, since this bill does go for all post-secondary institutions in the state,” Rivera Ramirez said.
Elliott Wood is a beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
