Members of United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico collaborated on a House Memorial that, if passed, would request the Legislative Finance Committee of the New Mexico Legislature launch a study on the feasibility of expanding health insurance to all higher education educators, including temporary part-time faculty and graduate student employees, according to the memorial.
The report requested by the memorial would have a deadline of Oct. 1 of this year. The 2026 legislative session is set to begin on Jan. 20 and end on Feb. 19.
New Mexico State Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-13) who introduced the memorial, wrote that higher education “runs on graduate workers, adjuncts, and other employees who often lack stable pay and basic benefits, including healthcare.”
“Working with UNM graduate workers has been collaborative, solutions focused, and exciting. They have brought forward clear needs and serious policy input,” Roybal Caballero wrote.
A memorial is similar to a bill except that it does not have the force of a law and does not require an action by the governor — instead, it is a formal expression of legislative desire, according to the State Legislatures Glossary of Terms.
Ahead of drafting the memorial, UNM PhD student and UGW Data Committee Chair Zach Strasberg, along with the UGW data team, compiled a report on compensation, healthcare and tuition coverage from universities statewide, he said.
According to the report, across all six New Mexico public universities, including UNM, the average full-time graduate worker earns $2,093 per month, $1,352 below the average cost of living across the state.
Although UNM is the only public university that provides health insurance to graduate workers in New Mexico, a 2025 survey conducted by UGW found that 70% of graduate workers at UNM felt financially insecure, and 60% were “rent-burdened,” according to the report.
According to the report, statewide employer-sponsored healthcare would cost the six universities an estimated $7.5 million collectively to enact the change for all higher education workers. UNM already offers employer-funded medical insurance to faculty.
Graduate pay has not kept pace with inflation, according to the report, which found that in 2011, average stipends nearly matched the state’s living wage, but fall more than 35% short today.
“It would both be beneficial to the University to pay its grad workers a little bit more and it would obviously be beneficial to the grad workers themselves because they could probably finish their degrees faster,” Strasberg said. “They wouldn't have to take out second jobs.”
Strasberg said that UGW was able to negotiate a 6% raise last year, after bargaining from March to October.
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“We basically spent the entire bargaining session fighting. So we started bargaining, we just finished bargaining and we just got the raise,” Strasberg said.
Roybal Caballero wrote that non-tenure track faculty and graduate workers who “teach and support students” are uninsured or underinsured, with many graduate workers having aged out of dependent coverage.
“The purpose (of the memorial) is practical,” Roybal Caballero wrote. “Get verified facts to interim committees after the session so we can act: either draft a bill for 2027 that would create a revolving fund for insurance coverage, or even possibly directly fund coverage within our existing budget.”
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
