Student choice grants shall be awarded in the following manner, subject to rules and regulations promulgated under Section 21-21C-8 NMSA 1978:

A. the student desiring a student choice grant shall be entitled to a student choice grant upon a determination by the commission on higher education [higher education department] that:

(1) the student is enrolled or shall be enrolled, at the time the student choice grant is awarded and disbursed, at an institution for at least six semester credit hours in a program leading to a degree;

(2) the student is in satisfactory academic standing in the institution or is making his first application to the institution;

(3) the student is a New Mexico resident, as that term is defined for the purpose of determining whether resident or nonresident fees are to be paid to a state institution of higher education; and

(4) considering the other resources reasonably available to the student, the grant, in its proposed amount, is probably necessary for the student to begin or continue his education;

B. on or before the date the student choice grant is awarded, the student shall provide to the commission on higher education [higher education department] written authorization, approved by the institution in which the student is enrolled, granting to the commission [department] authority to inspect any of the academic or financial records of the student which are held by that institution and which are necessary to the proper administration of the provisions of the Student Choice Act, and further agreeing that any refund of tuition due to a student who withdraws shall be paid directly to the commission [department];

C. upon receipt of a student application for a student choice grant and the enrollment report from the institution certifying that the student is or will be, on the date of the student choice grant, duly enrolled as set forth in Subsection A of this section, the commission on higher education [higher education department] shall certify the maximum amount of the student choice grant, which shall be an amount equal to the number of semester credit hours for which the student is enrolled in an institution, up to a maximum of eighteen semester credit hours, multiplied by the hourly rate. The hourly rate shall be calculated by taking the general fund appropriations for instruction and general purposes for the university of New Mexico, New Mexico state university, New Mexico highlands university, eastern New Mexico university and western New Mexico university for the fiscal year in which the student choice grant is to be made, subtracting from that sum the portion deemed by the commission [department] to be attributable to other than undergraduate education and dividing by the aggregate number of undergraduate credit hours which were used in the calculation by the board of the general fund appropriations. If the hourly rate calculated under this subsection exceeds the tuition rate at any institution, then the hourly rate for purposes of calculating a student choice grant at that institution shall be the institution's hourly tuition rate;

D. a student choice grant to a part-time student shall be proportional to the student choice grant paid to a full-time student, based on the ratio of part-time credit hours to full-time credit hours;

E. if the money in the student choice fund is less than the amount needed to make the student choice grants in the amounts determined by the commission on higher education [higher education department], each grant to each student shall be reduced proportionally so as to utilize the full amount in the student choice fund; and

F. if a student withdraws or drops below full-time student status and is entitled to a refund for any tuition as determined by each institution's refund policy, the student shall pay to the commission on higher education [higher education department], as a refund of the student choice grant, the amount of any refund to which he is entitled from the institution, not to exceed the amount of the student choice grant awarded to that student.

History: Laws 1983, ch. 240, § 5; 1990, ch. 102, § 1.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

For designation of the commission on higher education as the higher education department, see 9-25-4.1 NMSA 1978.