About a third of freshmen awarded the Lottery Scholarship lose it within a semester, said Ann Brooks, chair of the Faculty Senate Budget Committee in a presentation to the regents on Thursday.
The Tuition and Fee Team, a board appointed by the UNM president and the Board of Regents that makes decisions about tuition and fees, recommended that 20 percent of any increase in tuition be invested in need-based financial aid for students to keep them in school through graduation.
“Need-based financial aid has been shown to increase retention and graduation rates,” GPSA President Katie Richardson said Wednesday morning during the Board of Regents Finance and Facilities Committee hearing.
Brooks, who also serves on the President’s Strategic Advisory Team, said students need to find what the team calls an “ah-ha” moment in deciding the major they want to pursue.
“It is the time it takes for a student to identify the major they want and connect with the faculty that are within that major,” she said. “The longer it takes to identify that major for the student, the longer it takes on their journey.”
GSPA President Katie Richardson said that, in an effort to increase student support, UNM will also hire four new advisers per year for the next five years, as well as 20 tenure-track professors to give students more support.
According to the PSAT’s presentation at the regents’ meeting, hiring more tenure-track professors will increase the number of available courses, foster research and increase supervision of graduate students.
The PSAT has come up with nine additional low- to mid-cost initiatives to fight high drop-out rates.
“One is called the Student Success Summit, where interested faculty and staff would meet each March to discuss, learn, strategize and volunteer for opportunities to connect with incoming freshmen,” Brooks said.
Brooks said another initiative, Graduation Coaches, would pair faculty and staff from the Student Success Summit with incoming freshman to help them anticipate and navigate obstacles on the road to graduation.
Interim Provost Chaoki Abdallah said although information on how to maintain the Lottery Scholarship is available early to freshmen, often they still fail to meet the GPA requirements or take sufficient credit hours to maintain their eligibility for the scholarship. Abdallah said meeting one-on-one with students early on is the key to success.
“We find in many cases that you need that personal touch,” Abdallah said.
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Agenda items that were not approved at the regents meeting included an approximately $1.5 million project that would renovate the interior of the Student Residence Center apartments.
