But school's already getting under way. Next year we can be proactive. Next year we can use this program to recruit students, and to retain those who are here. But right now, we are just working hard to distribute this year's allocation. Irma Rubio, UTEP's director of undergraduate recruitment, says that even though approval of the grant program came so late in the year, it's still good news.
Money is one of the big issues for our best students.
Especially if it's grant money, readily available to them, that they don't have to pay back. They are looking for what's available locally and in the rest of Texas. Scholarship and grant money has a bearing on whether they leave or head out of town, certainly. Rubio says there's a potentially positive long-term effect. We have to look at the community at large.