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|
SPONSOR: |
Garcia, M.J. |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
|
||
|
SHORT TITLE: |
NMSU Graduate Assistantship Payments |
SB |
747 |
||||
|
|
ANALYST: |
Williams |
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APPROPRIATION
|
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
|
FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
|
$2,000.0 |
|
|
Recurring |
GF |
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates
to Appropriation for
Responses
Received From
Commission
on Higher Education (CHE)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate Bill 747
appropriates $2,000.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New
Mexico State University (NMSU) to pay the cost of health insurance and tuition
for graduate assistants.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of
$2,000.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any
unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2004
shall revert to the general fund.
The
CHE reports the following:
Within CHE’s Financial
Aid Budget, a Graduate Scholarship Program receives a General Fund appropriation each year. The purpose of the program is to increase
graduate enrollment in the state’s public universities of students from groups
under-represented in graduate education.
Scholarships are for $7,200 per academic year for full-time graduate students. As a condition of the scholarship, a student
must serve in an unpaid internship or assistantship at an eligible institution,
a government agency or private industry approved by his major department for 10
hours during the academic year. NMSU has
received the following allocations:
|
Academic Year |
Allocation |
Placements |
|
2002-03 |
$128,008 |
18 |
|
2001-02 |
$142,648 |
20 |
|
2000-01 |
$136,963 |
19 |
|
1999-00 |
$148,348 |
21 |
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The $2,000.0 would
allow NMSU to award over 278 scholarships and\or graduate assistantships if
each placement is awarded at the stated rate of $7.2 per award. It is not stated in the bill, it is assumed
all placements would be at NMSU, an increase of 260 placements unless it is the
intent of the bill that tuition and health insurance costs be added to the award
amount cited above. Adding tuition and
health insurance costs to the stipends would reduce the number of placements
but still provide a number of placements, but still provide a number of
placements much greater than the current placements.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
A request was not included in
The CHE suggests
adding the following language for all new recurring higher education programs
(assuming that funding will continue beyond 2003-2004):
“A plan for a program
evaluation, including specific program goals and criteria for assessing program
effectiveness, shall be submitted to the Legislative Finance Committee and the
Commission on Higher Education by
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
1.
What are graduate assistants or NMSU
currently paying for health insurance?
2.
How much is the tuition for a graduate
assistant or scholarship recipient?
3.
Is it intended that this bill supplement
the $7.2 thousand scholarship and\or graduate assistantship awards?
4.
How was the cost of $2,000.0 determined?
5.
What is the break-down of the costs for
scholarships and health insurance?
6.
Would enacting this bill affect other
universities? Why or Why not?
7.
Should the appropriation in this bill be
directed to the CHE?
8.
How does this bill relate to other
graduate assistantships awarded by NMSU
RB/yr:prr