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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/13/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE NMSU Community Service Graduate Assistantship SB 850

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$240.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates HB 108

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Higher Education (NMHED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 850 appropriates $240,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico State University (NMSU) for expenditure in FY08 to pay for the community service

graduate assistantship program.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $240,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Community Service Graduate Assistantship Program at NMSU is a pilot project to attract

outstanding graduate students to careers in the State of New Mexico. The key objective of the

program is to engage graduate students in community and economic development activities

Senate Bill 850 – Page

2

within the state while they are enrolled as students. In addition to working as graduate teaching

assistants, the students will work at least 200 hours in a calendar year in government agencies,

nonprofit organizations, and/or businesses in New Mexico. The program expects participants to

become future employees of those agencies and/or the businesses for which they provide

services. The intent of the program is to strengthen relationships between universities and

communities throughout the state. According to NMSU, the program has the support of the New

Mexico Graduate Deans Council.

Community Service and Community Engagement is becoming increasingly important at

institutions of higher education in an attempt to educate students for the future and have them

relate their education to work in the community. Carnegie views community engagement as

important enough to award a new classification to institutions of higher education in this area.

This proposal was submitted to HED by NMSU and was not included in the department’s

funding recommendation for FY08.

GM/csd