By Maura Fox
Since moving to New Mexico from her home country of Malaysia in 2017, Nuraisyah A Mohd Hilmi has paused her college education twice because she couldn’t afford tuition. She left Northern New Mexico College in Espanola, New Mexico, after one semester because as an international student she couldn’t afford another $4,800 tuition bill. She returned after getting her green card, but when Covid-19 hit and she lost her job, even the $1,500 in-state tuition per course was too much. Last year, Mohd Hilmi, 23, tried again, this time at Santa Fe Community College, where four online courses cost $800. Still, for most of this school year she worked two jobs, often seven days a week — as an employee at the school’s financial aid office and as a weekend bartender — and attended online classes at night. It’s been a stressful year — Mohd Hilmi said she once had to call in sick for a week after working 10 days in a row — but what’s gotten her through it and kept her on track to graduate by December are an array of services Santa Fe Community College provides to help students like her: computer and iPad rentals for students who can’t afford their own, reservable study spaces on campus for students whose living situations aren’t conducive to focus and the Student Emergency Assistance Fund, which helped her cover the costs of damages when her parked car was hit on campus. “I don’t always need the help, but when I do, I know that somebody is there,” Mohd Hilmi said.“Tuition-free” college
Services like these are likely to become even more important for New Mexico’s colleges this fall when the state’s newly expanded Opportunity Scholarship, which grants nearly all New Mexico residents free college tuition at 29 public schools in the state, goes into effect and New Mexico becomes one of nearly 30 states nationally to offer some form of “tuition-free” college. A 2020 study found enrollment jumped 23 percent at two-year colleges that adopted similar “tuition-free” programs compared to schools without these programs, with the biggest increases for Black, Hispanic and female students.“It doesn’t do the students a big favor if you give them money to get in the door but then don’t properly serve them and help them graduate.” David Tandberg, State Higher Education Executive Officers AssociationNew Mexico’s Opportunity Scholarship has been met with wide support in a state that has seen a decrease in college enrollment over the past decade. But as New Mexico and other states make college more affordable, it will be important for states to do more than just cover tuition. States should continue to “invest in the institutions themselves” to ensure they have adequate funding to support student programs, said David Tandberg, the senior vice president at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO). “They need the resources to properly serve the students, especially if there’s an increase in enrollment,” he said. “It doesn’t do the students a big favor if you give them money to get in the door but then don’t properly serve them and help them graduate.” New Mexico’s Opportunity Scholarship, passed by the legislature earlier this year and signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in early March, is available to part and full-time students, as well as incarcerated students and adults working toward a training certificate or associate’s or bachelor’s degree. The program is a significant expansion of the state’s original Opportunity Scholarship, created in 2020. State higher education officials are confident it will be able to provide colleges the resources they need to support students under the Opportunity Scholarship. This year, New Mexico increased operational funding for higher education institutions to $657.7 million, up by $19 million from last year, and allocated more funding for campus services focused on food insecurity, academic and career advising, mental health and other needs that schools can access through a competitive grant application process.
“A lot of life can happen”
Community colleges have long focused on student services that address nonacademic needs, like helping ensure students have adequate housing or access to tutoring resources, because of the population they serve. Many community college students are part-time or returning students who left school to join the workforce or support families. Many of New Mexico’s community colleges — including Santa Fe Community College, Central New Mexico Community College and San Juan Community College in Farmington — say their existing “wraparound services” will help support the expected influx of students due to the Opportunity Scholarship. For example, Central New Mexico Community College recently launched a new food pantry and is working to expand its in-person and online library and tutoring hours. And at Santa Fe Community College, a student resource coordinator helps connect students with housing, rental assistance and child care. The school is prepared to scale up the service and related efforts, including expanding hours of operation, if it sees an increase in enrollment with the Opportunity Scholarship, said Thomasinia Ortiz-Gallegos, the school’s associate vice president for student success. The 5,000-student college currently spends $4 million of its $36 million annual budget on student services, which are resources dedicated to students’ emotional or physical wellbeing.
What’s next
This is one of many stories included in Youth Today’s OST reporting initiative. This story originally published June 7, 2022, on Youth Today.
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