Recommendation Report: Cost of Attendance at UNM

Christian Pacheco
ENGL 219

Summary
In this report I want to address the issue regarding current cost of attendance per student
at the University of New Mexico. For me personally, I believe the current cost to attend the
University is not bad, but for many others that do not have the same privileges as I, these costs
are far from reasonable. For someone such as myself (and many others) who is a full time
student and works a part time job to pay for these classes, I strongly dislike the sheer amount of
money I have to pay just to take such low level classes that hardly even relate to my major. As
you will see further down in the report, I am not the only one who shares this opinion. I want to
make sure that everyone sees that this is an issue that needs to be addressed and improved upon.

Introduction
The tuition at the University of New Mexico has been a talking point for years in the state
of New Mexico. Many in-state residents, despite the opportunity for the widely distributed
Lottery Scholarship, are not satisfied with how costly sending a student off to college is. The cost
of living in Albuquerque plays a key role in how many high school graduates move on to the
upper level education that is offered through the university.

As it stands now, New Mexico is towards the top on the list of worst places to live in the
United States according to Forbes.com. Some of the main factors that makes New Mexico such
an undesirable place to reside is the poor quality of life, laughable job availability, and
substandard economic climate. Take all these factors and the average income per capita, which
is currently $22,966, and compare it now to how much tuition is just for undergraduates. For the
current academic year of 2016-2017, cost of attendance for undergraduates is $21,360. So, from
just knowing the average income per capita and current cost of attendance, we now know that,
for in-state residents, the total cost of attendance demands a staggering 93% of a residents yearly
income. This is borderline unacceptable. The cost of attendance for non-resident students is
much more expensive as it comes out to $36,346 in total. Now, Im not ruling out scholarships as
they are essential in bringing down the cost of tuition and can be maintained for a very
reasonable amount of time during a students collegiate attendance. However, there are many
who now attend the University without scholarships and many more who have dropped out for
the same reason along with the fact that it is just too hard to come up with the money to pay for
the education.
In the figure below, you can see how in the past 10 years, tuition and fees have continued
to rise in relation to national tuition and fees as well as inflation. In the ten years since 2003,
tuition has more that doubled, and although not shown, the current tuition and fees as of 2016
has grown even more.

According to a

handful of students at

the University of New

Mexico, tuition is

always something to cause worry on a daily basis. One such student, Tianna Fernandez, a junior
pursuing a major in Exercise Science, is currently taking a full 18 credit hours while also
working a full time job. I have to put most of my paycheck into rent and tuition. I hardly have
any money for myself. It doesnt help that, even with my scholarship, Im still dishing out an arm
and a leg just to pay for in-state education. To fix this issue I have come up with a 5 step plan
that will reduce the cost of attendance at the University of New Mexico. Alex Grumblatt and
Joshua Bradford, also juniors, are reliant on financial aid from the state as well as their parents.
Both had to say this about the current cost of attendance: Grumblatt: My parents have the issue
with the tuition since they pay for it, but all that tells me is that my financial aid and scholarship
arent cutting it. Its ridiculous. Bradford: I think that the tuition and fees could definitely be
lowered. Maybe if we didnt pour so much money into our sports programs, maybe itd be better
for us students.
It seems that most students have an issue with the current cost of attendance, so I have
put together a five-step method that may help their situations. This step-by-step process will

ensure that there is a fair cost being set by the university for students so that those who are able
to afford this upper level education can continue to do so, as well as new students who would
like to expand their educational horizons.

Methodology
Step 1: Research current cost of tuition and collect opinions from students regarding changes to
tuition they think would be more attractive to new students. This will allow us to find a sweet
spot for both the institution and students alike.
Step 2: Research other upper level educational institutions and what their annual cost of
attendance are and how that cost relates to UNM enrollment costs. With this information, we can
see how cost of attendance at other schools have an effect on student enrollment.
Step 3: Based on the information gathered, create a plan that will allow for lowered costs to
attend, which will increase new student enrollment rates.
Step 4: Provide future projections once this new plan is put into place which will allow for
incoming students to make less difficult financial decisions.
Step 5: Present my findings based on the allocated research.

Suggested Options

In order to reduce costs, I recommend creating more opportunities to earn scholarships.

This would mean establishing foundations, new academic or extracurricular opportunities,
grants, etc. The introduction of new scholarship opportunities could attract more prospective
students and allow for more in-state residents to consider taking the next step up the educational
ladder.
Another recommendation I have is to redistribute funds from our sports programs. In the
recent years, we have seen tuition increase due to our sports programs. As much as we all love
sports, some of us do enjoy being able to create a path which leads to a financially secure future
through our educational endeavors. If we were able to redistribute these costs into more useful
forms such as scholarships, or even remove these funds altogether to reduce the cost of
attendance, we could potentially see an increase in prospective enrollment in the years to come
as well as undergraduate and post graduate completions. Below is a graph that represents a poll I
conducted on campus. I presented both recommendations to alleviate the cost to attend the

University of New Mexico to 95 students. Here are the results:

Poll Results
60
50
Yes

40

No
30

Proposed

20
10
0
Student Aid Creation Redistribution of Funds

Other

Based on the data collected from these students there is almost a clear 50/50 split of yes data
between Student Aid Creation and Redistribution of Funds. (Although there is a greater amount
of no responses, most students did not necessarily reject one recommendation over the other,
7

and those who proposed other methods did not reject the recommendations either.) Considering
the data, I do believe that the recommendation to redistribute the funds within the University of
New Mexico to student financial aid is a well supported option.

Final Recommendation
It is without a doubt that the cost of attendance is through the roof at UNM and many
colleges across the nation, so a change must be made. I highly suggest that the action be taken to
redistribute or even eliminate funds from areas within the university that come across as
excessive. A good place to start would be UNMs sports programs, mainly our football program.
It is known that in recent years, tuition has increased in order to fund the football program
further. These funds can be placed into scholarships, grants, work study, etc. The goal of this
method is to reduce costs altogether in terms of the cost of attendance to our prestigious
institution and to invite more students into our wonderful city so that they may further their
academic lives and create a beneficial life in the future based on their time here at UNM. Thank
you for your consideration.
Contact me:
chpacheco@unm.edu
+1-(505)-555-4299

Works Cited
1. "Office of Admissions." Cost of Attendance :: Office of Admissions | The University of
New Mexico. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
2. Astrid Galvan | Journal Staff Writer. "Updated: UNM Tuition Doubles over 10 Years."
Albuquerque Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
3. "Tuition and Fee Rates." Tuition and Fee Rates :: Bursar | The University of New

Mexico. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.