WHEREAS, the League of United Latin American Citizens supports the development of full and equal educational opportunities for all students in the State of New Mexico; and,

WHEREAS, the proposed changes will delay and in many cases deny admission to many marginally qualified Hispanics thus once again closing the doors of opportunity to our minority students; and,

WHEREAS, there has been no longitudinal study to support or validate that tuition increases are the panacea to improve UNM’s academic standing; and,

WHEREAS, LULAC supports the vision of UNM becoming the states flagship university and keeping the doors open to all of our states the states and students; and, if students are not prepared to perform at the university level. UNM should focus its sights on identifying root causes to improve the quality of students entering higher education, and

WHEREAS, LULAC is opposed to a unilateral tuition increase that disenfranchises primarily minority student who have been “pushed” through the system so that UNM numbers look better in the short term.

NOW THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED that the LULAC 2008 State Convention strongly recommends that the Secretary of Education to create a commission to identify corrective actions being implemented to ensure that all the states students have an equal opportunity for a quality education in New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, New Mexico Highlands, Albuquerque Public Schools, community organizations and other stake holders who want all New Mexico students to succeed; and

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that the LULAC State Convention forward the resolution to the University of New Mexico president, the University of New Mexico Board of Regents urging them to strongly support this resolution in its entirety and to suspend changes to its admission policy until an understanding of the consequences of these changes is developed and communicated to the public.

Approved this 11th day of July 2008.
Rosa Rosales
LULAC National President