A. The General Richard T. Knowles legislative scholarship program shall be administered by the board of regents of the New Mexico military institute. The board of regents shall establish one hundred twelve scholarships available to New Mexico residents, one scholarship available for each state legislative district.

B. Annually, each state legislator may nominate four prospective scholarship recipients to the board of regents of the New Mexico military institute. If a legislator has no applicant from the legislator's district, that senator or representative may choose to nominate an applicant from a senate or representative district contiguous to the legislator's own district, thus maintaining geographical diversity in the corps of cadets while affording a greater opportunity for more New Mexicans to receive a scholarship. In the event no applicant is available by July 1 of each year from either the legislator's district or a contiguous district, the scholarship may be awarded to any of the qualified nominees from any state legislative district.

C. Scholarships shall be awarded to qualifying New Mexico residents for a term not to exceed four years.

D. The board of regents shall establish criteria for the awarding of scholarships. Criteria shall include scholastic ability, faculty recommendations, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, school honors and extracurricular activities.

History: Laws 1989, ch. 44, § 2; 1989, ch. 45, § 2; 1998 (1st S.S.), ch. 4, § 2; 2009, ch. 228, § 1.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, in Subsection B, added the last sentence.

The 1998 amendment, effective on August 2, 1998, in Subsection A, substituted "General Richard T. Knowles legislative scholarship program" for "legislator scholarship program", and substituted "for" for "in" near the end; and added the last sentence in Subsection B.