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Monday, March 22, 2021 | Vo l u m e 1 2 5 | I s s u e 2 6
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Lottery Scholarship funding measure headed to gov’s desk
UNM admin, ASUNM laud increased funding despite scholarship’s troubling equity disparities By Madeline Pukite @madelinepukite House Bill 2, the New Mexico state appropriations bill, has been approved by both chambers of the Legislature and is headed to the governor’s desk for her approval. The proposed budget legislation would allocate $59.6 million dollars toward the Lottery Scholarship for state high school graduates who choose to pursue New Mexico higher education. The Lottery Scholarship is a “merit-based” New Mexico scholarship program that helps pay for New Mexico high school graduates’ tuition at a state college or university. A majority of the scholarship’s funding comes
from lottery ticket sales. If approved, the scholarship would cover 90% of tuition for those who are eligible to receive it, a marked increase compared to last year’s funding, which only covered 60%. Despite these benefits, meritbased scholarships have been scrutinized for years for siphoning limited resources away from low-income students to the most privileged, according to a 2005 NPR story. “The Lottery Scholarship — the state’s largest financial aid program — is not need-based even though New Mexico has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation,” New Mexico Voices for Children (NM Voices), a children’s advocacy group, said in a
2018 infographic on the topic. Additionally, a substantial minority of all scholarships funded by the New Mexico Lottery, which sells scratch offs and draw games among other products, are awarded to students from wealthier families who don’t receive federal financial aid. “One in three Lottery Scholarship dollars go to first-time scholarship recipients with family income above $90,000,” according to New Mexico Higher Education Department data from 2012. Almost half (43%) of Lottery Scholarship recipients came from households that made over $75,000 a year and received no federal student aid, according to
see
Scholarship page 2
Photo by Aidan Bartos on Unsplash.
Courtesy Photo
GPSA presidential election looms amid grad union litigation By Liam DeBonis @LiamDebonis Just weeks after the ASUNM election, the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) will hold their own election for a new president. Beginning March 29, students will be able to cast their vote for one of the two candidates vying for the seat. Aaron Cowan, an organization, information and learning sciences Ph.D student, and David C. Saavedra, a public administration master student, have announced their candidacies for GPSA president. Saavedra currently serves as the chief of staff for the executive branch of GPSA, while Cowan currently chairs the Legislative Steering Committee. The GPSA is the student body government charged with representing graduate and professional students at the University of New Mexico. Its executive branch contains a multitude of committees including the Lobby Committee, which petitions the University and the New Mexico Legislature to advance the interests of graduate and professional students on campus. According to his statement
Liam DeBonis / Daily Lobo / @LiamDeBonis
The candidates for the 2021 GPSA presidential election. Photos courtesy of GPSA.
on the GPSA general election webpage, Saavedra’s platform is built upon supporting graduate and professional students by “serving as a mode of communication between students and UNM administration.” Cowan, meanwhile, expressed his support for unionization and “fight(ing) for opportunity for all students, including the undocumented, while holding UNM
Inside this Lobo HECKES: Romero, Regalado take ASUNM election in decisive win (pg. 2) ROMERO, REGALADO: LETTER: New ASUNM president and vice president address student body (pg. 4)
administration accountable.” The election comes at a critical point in student-administration relations as the United Grad Workers of UNM, a union organized by graduate student workers, have been embroiled in a fight to be recognized as legitimate by the state’s Public Employees Labor Relations Board. At the same time, the University has actively sought
to delegitimize the union, going so far as to file a motion in December to block the union’s right to organize. Another key role of the new GPSA president is to serve as chair of the 2022 Student Fee Review Board (SFRB), a committee of undergraduate and graduate students in charge of recommending student fee funding allocations.
An influential organization with the power of a multi-million dollar purse, the SFRB is widely understood as one of the most practically relevant facets of student government. Last year, the board recommended the approximately $72,000 in funding necessary for the establishment of the Asian Pacific American Culture Center (APACC). Notably, the SFRB also declined to reduce student fees amid calls for relief from students struggling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The GPSA president is also tasked with interviewing and recommending potential applicants to the governor of New Mexico for the student regent position on the UNM Board of Regents. The student regent, alongside other members of the Board, works closely with executive leadership to manage the University as a whole. Students can log in to my.unm. edu to vote for either candidate between March 29 and April 2. Election results will be announced on April 5. Liam DeBonis is the photo editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at photoeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @LiamDebonis
BODKIN: REVIEW: ‘It’s a Sin’ approaches HIV/AIDS crisis with compassion, humanity and love (pg. 4) HOBART: Haaland takes reins at Interior Department (pg. 5) WARD: NM renters suffer in pandemic housing market (pg. 6) BIADORA: Cannabis legalization hits another pothole in NM Legislature (pg. 7)