UNM recently hosted a joint meeting of UNM’s and NMSU’s Boards of Regents to discuss issues of higher education and updates on the New Mexico Legislative Lottery Scholarship.
Joint regents meetings usually happen once a year, before a football or basketball game between the two universities, according to Mallory Reviere, special assistant to the UNM Board of Regents.
The Lottery Scholarship, which has been in effect since 1996, has awarded over $632 million for New Mexico students since 1996, according to the NM Lottery website. But the scholarship has recently been facing trouble with lottery ticket sales plateauing and the NM Liquor Excise Tax contribution to the scholarship’s fund expiring in 2017, according to UNM Student Regent Ryan Berryman.
“The solvency of the Lottery Scholarship is a concern on the state level, administrative level and most importantly the student level,” Berryman said. “We’ve seen lottery sales level off, the Liquor Excise Tax is set to expire in 2017 and I think that both universities (UNM and NMSU) and all universities around the state have realized that we need some sort of consensus on this issue.”
The NM State Liquor Excise Tax imposes taxes on the sales of alcoholic beverages by wholesalers for varying rates depending on the type of beverage, according to the New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Dept. website.
In October the tax brought in more than $2 million according to the October 2015 Excise Tax statistical report. NM Legislation passed in 2015 requires the State Liquor Excise Tax to distribute 39 percent of the receipts from the tax to the NM Lottery Scholarship fund from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017, according to a legislative update by UNM Continuing Education and the NM DOT.
“We are going to be asking (the NM State Legislature) for a four-year extension on the Liquor Excise Tax,” said ASUNM President Jenna Hagengruber. “The reason we’re asking for four years is because we think that four years from the time we’re asking will get the current group of freshmen all the way through their senior year.”
ASNMSU President Dustin Chavez contributed the idea of a “gap year” during discussion of the state of the Lottery Scholarship.
“A gap year would be a time period of one year after high school graduation that a student will enter college,” Chavez said.
Chavez said that a gap year is essentially a break between an individual graduating high school and enrolling in college, in which a student takes time for preparation, whether it’s financial preparation, emotional preparation, mental preparation or otherwise.
Current eligibility for the NM Lottery Scholarship mandates that a student must immediately enroll in an NM state college in order to receive the scholarship, according to the New Mexico Higher Education Dept. This requirement excludes the option for high school graduates to take a gap year.
Chavez said that the idea has received pushback from around the state and that he would like those opposing the idea to keep an open mind.
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UNM Provost Dr. Chaouki Abdallah said he supports the idea of gap years.
“I support the concept in principle,” Abdallah said. “The gap year will allow students to explore and be better prepared for college in case they are not ready to continue right away.”
Abdallah said that many private universities offer deferred admission for the same reasons. Chavez says that the idea has its backers.
“People tend to laugh at (the idea of) gap years,” Chavez said, “but (it) has passed the house unanimously and the Senate...so it’s not like this crazy idea.”
Fin Martinez is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @FinMartinez.
