Changes will be made to the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship this fall - some of which will make it available to a wider range of students.
Reed Dasenbrock, state secretary of higher education, said there are four major changes to the Lottery Scholarship criteria.
First, he said, students with disabilities can be considered full-time students at six credit hours instead of 12.
"We really want to help our students achieve success, which won't happen if they are overburdened by too many classes," he said. "We don't want to have unreasonable expectations."
The second change will make it so that students are no longer required to fill out a FAFSA to be Lottery eligible.
"The FAFSA is a barrier to many people," Dasenbrock said. "It's complicated, hard to fill out, and many people don't have ready access to the information needed. We want to reduce as many barriers as possible."
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The third change, which went into effect July 1, will allow nursing students, who are in an accelerated program that requires them to take a summer semester, to have their summer semester covered by the Lottery Scholarship.
"This isn't actually granting them any more funding than other students," Dasenbrock said. "They are taking the same number of semesters, just taking them in shorter succession. We want to allow them funding for the summer semester since it is mandatory."
Summer funding will not be available for the general student population, however.
Robin Baumgart, an education student, said she is disappointed by this.
"I really wanted to take a class this summer, but I just couldn't afford it," she said. "As it is, I won't be able to take all my required classes within four semesters. I had wanted to take classes so that I might be able to finish in the time covered by my Lottery Scholarship."
Dasenbrock said that as soon as legislation will allow it, he wants to implement summer funding for all students.
The fourth change will allow transfer students to factor their GPA from another school into their UNM GPA, Dasenbrock said.
He said this will open doors for a lot of transfer students.
"Sometimes, a student may have a hard time the first semester they transfer," he said. "Now, rather than losing their scholarship, they can request that their cumulative GPA take into account their GPA from their previous college."
Dasenbrock said the change will also make transitions easier for students moving from the two-year sector to the four-year sector.
"New Mexico has a very high population in community colleges, and we want to make the four-year plan as easy as possible for these students," said Dasenbrock. "We want to enable New Mexico students to be successful in college."
Students enrolling in the fall semester can already take advantage of these changes, he said.
