Students stood up against a flat rate for the lottery scholarship at the Board of Regents meeting Tuesday.
Almost no students attend most regent meetings but at least 20 students from ASUNM attended at the request of ASUNM President Kevin Stevenson.
Stevenson said he wanted the regents to support ASUNM in opposing a change to the amount of the lottery scholarship.
"I can't emphasize how important it is to stop decoupling the lottery," Stevenson said. "We need to keep the best and brightest students at the University."
House Bill 777 and Senate Bill 651 would set the Lottery Success Scholarship at a flat rate.
UNM students would receive a $1,400 award instead of a scholarship in the amount of tuition.
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UNM tuition for this academic year is $1,556 per semester. Under the proposed flat rate, the scholarship would have awarded $312 less a semester this academic year.
There are 5,619 students receiving the scholarship at UNM.
Stevenson said decoupling the scholarship award from tuition rates would hurt students and families who can least afford it. He said the University would also lose 25 percent of its presidential scholars.
UNM President Louis Caldera said it could potentially affect enrollment at UNM. He said after the lottery program began, UNM's enrollment doubled.
Stevenson recounted ASUNM's lobbying efforts in Santa Fe on UNM Day and mentioned legislators had told them UNM regents supported the governor's position on the lottery.
"Instead of looking like renegade students, we need to be a united university fighting for this," Stevenson said.
Stevenson said he had not seen any of the regents in Santa Fe and asked them to support ASUNM on the lottery issue.
"I agree with you. We have not been there," said Board of Regents President Jamie Koch.
During the legislative summary, the regents debated whether to officially declare they do not support the change to the scholarship.
Regents Mel Eaves and Jack Fortner wanted to wait until they met with the governor's office on the issue.
"I heard what the students were saying this morning," Koch said. "The students came and told us what they want."
Koch said he thought it was wrong if the regents decided not to support students on the issue.
Regent Raymond Sanchez urged the board to pass a resolution, saying the regents should appear strong to the governor.
He said is empirical evidence that the bill would be negative for the University.
"If you are talking about negotiations - it's right here," he said.
The regents unanimously passed a resolution opposing the lottery scholarship flat-rate proposal.
Bills concerning changes to the lottery scholarship will be discussed in the Senate Education Committee today in Santa Fe.
