NMSU Board of Regents votes to increase tuition by 6 percent

The New Mexico State University Board of Regents voted Monday to raise tuition for the fall semester by six percent.

The vote was unanimous in favor the increase, 5-0.

For in-state students taking 15 or more credit hours, the increase will be $196 a semester. For out-of-state students taking 15 or more credit hours, the increase will be $733 a semester.

The board held a two-hour special meeting on Monday, with faculty and students weighing in the proposed increase.

“(I am) very concerned at the quality of education,” Ross Marks, an assistant professor in the university’s Creative Media Institute, told the board.

Marks, a staff members and alumnus of the university, said his department turns away numerous students every semester because of staff cuts.

“We feel really stressed and we feel really uncomfortable in the environment we’re in,” Marks said at the meeting.

Local business owner Lou Sisbarro was in favor of the tuition increase to avoid cutting more staff positions.

“I don’t think we can afford any more cuts,” Sisbarro told the board. “I think we need to stabilize our workforce and grow NMSU with what we have right now.”

The university lost about 727 positions over the past seven years, according to a university slideshow presented at the meeting.

Incoming NMSU senior Rachel Hobson is completing a degree in hotel, restaurant and tourism management. She told the New Mexico Mobile Newsroom she works 35 hours a week to pay for rent, books and tuition. She said any increase in tuition would mean she would have to take out more loans.

“I’m already pretty cut back on time with friends and family,” Hobson said. “(It’s) because of how much I have to work to cover all my expenses and all the time I have to spend studying.”

John Flynn, who is getting ready to send his his daughter, Tamara, to NMSU, said, “It’s a good chunk of change.”

“It leaves you in a little bit of a quandary, because what else are they going to throw at you?” Flynn asked.

Hobson urged the board to find other items to cut before moving to students.

“Why should we be the ones that have to carry all that weight when there is money in the budget?” Hobson asked.