Well isn’t this dandy! While tuiition is at an all time high, and climbing, there is no better decision than to remove hope for many kids, and their families, to get an education.

if the lottery fund folds, I hope the institutions, departments, counselors, and all the others involved enjoyed the salad days of putting kids into worthless studies. It was easy enough for kids to choose Revolutionary Butter Making or Pre-Columbian Ear Wax Sculpting Studies as majors when they bill wasn’t on them or their families.

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Keep giving the money meant for LEAGAL citizens in this country to go to school with to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and this is what happens. Wake up NM!

Why not just raise the GPA required and give it to fewer kids who are willing to work harder? It’s not like getting a 2.5 is some fabulous achievement that someone should be handsomely rewarded for. An orangutan could earn a 2.5 at UNM.

Oh Yeah, but what about an illegal Orangutang ? could they pull off a 2.5 ?

What is with all you freaking moron immigrant haters. We’re a country of immigrants you dweebs. Just because your ancestors got here first, you know have god given rights to deny all others ?

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Gimme a break. You can tell you are a bunny foo foo, bleeding heart liberal. I am not in any way against immigration as long as it is LEGAL!! People who are NOT citizens of this country are stealing benefits from you and I everyday and people like you are willing to turn a blind eye to it. Wake up!!

I agree with the rising GPA requirements, if you are willing to work harder then you should be rewarded. Also Venom those undocumented immigrants you are talking about also buy lottery tickets (I know many who do). There is nothing wrong with being a liberal and neither with being conservative and “insulting” someone on base of being a liberal just goes to show your ignorance.

LIBERALS HATE AMERICA!!!!

Hey Rako, first of all let’s call a spade a spade. Calling an illegal alien an undocumented worker is like calling a drug dealer an unlicensed pharmacist. Who cares what they buy when they are here in the US. An ILLEGAL ALIEN is Illegal!! Just because I go to Germany and buy a lottery ticket does not mean that I am entitled to their education system. ILLEGAL ALIENS do not deserve drivers licenes or any other benefit of living in this country.

I don’t know how this turned into a discussion about Immigrants, but I say thank whoever’s up there that this ridiculous scholarship is running out. I agree with Anonymous—It’s actually harder to fail a class at UNM than to not—I’m pretty sure you actually have to try to get less than a 2.5. Let’s make this a true merit scholarship and stop wasting both students and professors time handing out free money to people who can’t get and don’t deserve a degree anyway. The lottery scholarship has done NOTHING but devalue the degree of students who can actually learn and actually care. The more illiterate entitled “students” we can get off this campus the better it will be for everyone else. Anyone who teaches here should be thrilled that this thing will finally run out. Experiment failed.

I never received the lottery scholarship when I was earning my BS and MS at UNM because I graduated HS from another state. Why should I give a fuck if nobody else gets this rediculous “scholarship”? There is no free lunch, sorry.

“The Legislative Lottery Scholarship covers full tuition costs for eight consecutive semesters. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA and earn at least 12 credit hours per semester to remain eligible.”

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My first semester full time resident tuition & fee payment, not that many years ago, $524. I still have the check someplace. Now $3k. No wonder lottery is going broke.

So, lets raise the min GPA requirement (all for it). Then how are the professors going to get paid? The universities are state funded – so expect taxes to go up or expect some overeducated unemployed to be hanging out with the undereducated unemployed (ha ha).

Well my smiley-faced friend, as it turns out people are willing to pay quite well for GOOD educations. The school I went to charged a lot more than UNM does—and offered merit-based scholarships to over 60% of the students who attended—you know how? With Alumni finds and endowments. That’s because at the school I went to, Alumni were actually intelligent, educated, successful, and could become wealthy and later contribute to their Alma Mater. Many state run schools use similar ways of funding in addition to grants generated by faculty and programs, on top of State tax dollars. The problem is no one in their right mind should pay for an undergraduate education from UNM. The classes are so dumbed down for all the morons who could barely get out of our lousy high schools that I wonder how any UNM graduates get a job. Everyone knows a degree from UNM is not even as good as a diploma from a decent high school. The good faculty who teach here do so for the research opportunities and graduate education. I bet most professors would be thrilled if they could be hired to actually teach in their field instead of being paid by lottery dollars as glorified babysitters. If UNM became a respected institution with proper investments, money management, and reputation that people cared to pay for professors would have no trouble at all getting paid. Do you think the UC schools or any of the well-reputed state institutions rely of farcical schemes like the lottery scholarship for their funding? There’s a reason UNM is desperate for funds and its because it caters to losers who would probably be better off getting a degree online or not at all. They will never be successful enough to generate any funds for the university and this university will never have the reputation to attract competent administrators who could manage her investments properly.

@Hallelujah!

I am just curious and have no malign intent towards your comments; I just want to keep the discussion going.

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(formerly Hallelujah but it doesn’t make sense any more.)

It is really sad to see what has become of UNM. Especially because each sub-standard graduating class devalues the degrees of previous Alumni like yourself. I teach here and graduated 7 years ago from a small liberal arts college which would probably identify me. However not only private universities can have high standards, strong alumni and program funded endowments, good business practices etc. Nearly half of the nations top undergraduate institutions are public universities. What makes them the top schools are having a focus on Academics. One could argue that many top Universities are in wealthier states but this is not actually the case. LSU for example is similar in many ways to UNM except that it outranks UNM’s performance in all areas of undergraduate education (oh and sports). Here at UNM we argue that athletics bring in money to the college, but what would really bring in money is graduating well-qualified alumni who were willing (and just as importantly able) to help the institution. We need to stop giving out scholarships for everything but real merit and academic performance. This would not prevent those with financial challenges form coming here just those with academic challenges. I for example paid almost nothing at the top school I attended—because I showed that I was a good investment. Each successful alum is a good investment for a university. Each unsuccessful alum is a liability. For example are there any statistics on how much is donated to the alumni funds by those students who attended UNM using the lottery scholarship? Let’s crunch some data and see if it makes any sense at all to continue to dump money into the black hole that is a 2.5 GPA minimum. As an instructor here I have been specifically told to keep class standards so that most people get an A or B, some a C and few fail—and that responsibility is on the instructor, not the students. At my college professors set standards and you met them or not—they did not adjust standards just because students were unable or unwilling to meet them. UNM has a million and one schemes to get tuition money out of each student whether they are performing, showing up, or even getting anything out of their class. The whole system is basically corrupt , so its hard to know where to begin. Getting a 2.5 here is as easy as falling off a chair. And everyone (including employers) know this. And that’s the problem.

(formerly Hallelujah but it doesn’t make sense any more.)

It is really sad to see what has become of UNM. Especially because each sub-standard graduating class devalues the degrees of previous Alumni like yourself. I teach here and graduated 7 years ago from a small liberal arts college which would probably identify me. However not only private universities can have high standards, strong alumni and program funded endowments, good business practices etc. Nearly half of the nations top undergraduate institutions are public universities. What makes them the top schools are having a focus on Academics. One could argue that many top Universities are in wealthier states but this is not actually the case. LSU for example is similar in many ways to UNM except that it outranks UNM’s performance in all areas of undergraduate education (oh and sports). Here at UNM we argue that athletics bring in money to the college, but what would really bring in money is graduating well-qualified alumni who were willing (and just as importantly able) to help the institution. We need to stop giving out scholarships for everything but real merit and academic performance. This would not prevent those with financial challenges form coming here just those with academic challenges. I for example paid almost nothing at the top school I attended—because I showed that I was a good investment. Each successful alum is a good investment for a university. Each unsuccessful alum is a liability. For example are there any statistics on how much is donated to the alumni funds by those students who attended UNM using the lottery scholarship? Let’s crunch some data and see if it makes any sense at all to continue to dump money into the black hole that is a 2.5 GPA minimum. As an instructor here I have been specifically told to keep class standards so that most people get an A or B, some a C and few fail—and that responsibility is on the instructor, not the students. At my college professors set standards and you met them or not—they did not adjust standards just because students were unable or unwilling to meet them. UNM has a million and one schemes to get tuition money out of each student whether they are performing, showing up, or even getting anything out of their class. The whole system is basically corrupt , so its hard to know where to begin. Getting a 2.5 here is as easy as falling off a chair. And everyone (including employers) know this. And that’s the problem.

@ Hallelujah/Miss H:

Your points are well-taken and uncomfortably on the mark. You are also bringing me up to speed on things I sensed from a distance but could not see in detail. I should preface things by saying that there are points of excellence at UNM. The excellence just seems to be swamped by all the distractions and decline in other areas on campus.

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Well Alumnus, I wish I had more students like you in my classes now. We would all be better off. Keep talking and thinking and supporting—I haven’t given up on UNM either. that’s why I get so mad seeing some of these things!

While I see some students who are very grateful to have this scholarship (as I would have been had it been available when I graduated HS) I see far too many who seem to act as if this is just extended HS. They have no vested interest in doing anything but the bare minimum because the tab is being taken care of just like K-12.

Raise the GPA requirement and maybe limit the program options to participate in the scholarship. There are many things they could explore to motivate current and prospective students.

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Good ideas Chris, I totally agree. I doubt anyone will change anything though. As a professor I often get students complaining when they fail a class because they may lose their lottery scholarship. Professors are pressured to help these students out even if they put no effort at all into the class. I don’t know why the administration’s attitude is son lenient toward slackers. It hurts our good students and that is a big disservice.

I concur with Chris that such ideas would be a constructive start at reforming this Lottery Scholarship program. I also concur with Miss H that the increasingly sclerotic and out-of-touch UNM administration will not do anything to change the current state of affairs, barring a crisis.

My understanding is that efforts are underway to raise UNM’s standards for admission. Is there any reason for hope that this measure will gain approval and implementation? Such a measure would improve the pool of admitted students and by default lend academic credibility and financial solvency to the Lottery Scholarship.

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That last comment of yours should be sent in as a Letter to the Editor Alumnus. Seriously.