UNM graduate students with children cannot receive child care subsidies from the state, according to current New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department policy.
Lissa Knudsen, Graduate and Professional Student Association council chairwoman, said she is concerned with the issue because it is preventing many students with children from attending graduate school.
She said the law especially affects graduate students who are single mothers.
"If UNM is really trying to get more local people in as students, this statute really works against this goal," Knudsen said. "We are completely excluding single mothers of color by not providing financial assistance for child care."
Undergraduate students can receive free child care for the hours they are in class, according to the CYFD policy.
The CYFD's code of the Social Services Child Care Assistance Requirements for Clients and Child Care Providers states that assistance will not be granted to students enrolled in graduate or post-graduate courses.
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This code has been effective since Feb. 14, 2005.
Romaine Serna, spokeswoman for CYFD of New Mexico, said she was not aware of this requirement and doesn't understand why it's in place.
"It is definitely something we need to look into. We need to examine it as a state," Serna said. "I would have to get the experts in the area to see how many people it is affecting and what can be changed."
Knudsen said she has already considered how much funding would be needed to change this policy and provide child care for graduate students.
"We would need about $300,000 to really accomplish our goals," she said.
Knudsen said she has been working with UNM officials and lobbyists to find money to assist graduate parents. UNM President David Schmidly is supportive, but there are still obstacles in finding enough resources for all graduate students to receive financial aid for child care, Knudsen said.
Graduate student Theresa Avila, who uses the child care services on campus, said the University's services are excellent but too expensive for many graduate students she knows.
"I was shocked that subsidiaries weren't available to graduate students," she said.
Avila said this might be due to misconceptions of graduate students.
"The attitude is that grad students are somehow privileged or from a higher economic background, which is absolutely not true," she said.
Renee Delgado is unable to get subsidies for child care - because she is a graduate student, the CYFD would not grant her funding, she said.
"They told me that I wasn't the focus of their program, that my child didn't need it as much as the child of someone getting their GED or bachelor's," Delgado said.
Delgado said this barrier is keeping many parents, especially single mothers, from going to graduate school.
Delgado said that when she was an undergraduate, she had financial aid to attend college, but as a graduate student, she is finding finances extremely tight.
"As soon as you become a graduate student, you lose the Lottery Scholarship and the Pell Grant," she said.
Delgado said that even being on the waiting list for UNM child care costs money.
"You have to pay $40 a year just to keep (your children) on the list," she said. "Then, when they have a birthday, they get bumped to the next age group and have to go to the bottom of the new list, no matter where their name was on the previous list. You can find yourself waiting for years."
Knudsen said she is trying to bring the struggles of single mothers in higher education into the open.
"That voice is often silenced on campus, but it is a voice that needs to be heard," she said.
