Seven bills regarding UNM will be brought to the upcoming New Mexico legislative session, including one to establish scholarship programs for national merit scholars.

If passed, Senate Bill 11 would amend the Legislative Lottery Tuition to grant national merit scholarships to cover students’ tuitions and fees so long as recipients have been “designated a national merit finalist by the national merit scholarship corporation,” the proposed amendment states.

The proposed legislation, introduced by state Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, and published on the Legislature’s website, stipulates recipients be enrolled in a higher education institution or branch campu s within one year of high school graduation or receive a graduate-equivalent diploma. No more than 75 percent of the scholar ships will go to out-of-state residents, the legislation states.

Also, the scholarships may be renewed each semester as long as full-time students have a 2.5 grade-point average or above, the legislation states.

Another legislator, state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, has introduced a bill that would give the UNM Board of Regents the administrative authority over the Adolescent Treatment Hospital and Adolescen t Residential Treatment Facility Hospital, not the state Department of Health.

Read more here: http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2015/01/2015-1-6-unm-legislative-session-bills