President Frank’s Weekly Perspective — 10.22.2012

President’s Weekly Per­spec­tive — 10.22.2012

Good morn­ing.

I would like to start this week by thank­ing all of you who have con­tributed thus far to the UNM2020 plan­ning process, either by going on-line and adding your thoughts, or by vis­it­ing the SUB recently. Thank you also to the Staff Coun­cil for invit­ing me to join them on Tues­day for a good con­ver­sa­tion regard­ing RCM bud­get­ing. I also appre­ci­ated the dia­logue with the fac­ulty on Fri­day. I am look­ing for­ward to hav­ing more con­ver­sa­tions with both groups as well as our stu­dents going forward.

New Mexico’s Leg­is­la­ture
One of the exter­nal groups I have been speak­ing with reg­u­larly over the past few weeks has been our New Mex­ico Leg­is­la­ture. In par­tic­u­lar, I’ve been asked to present to sev­eral interim com­mit­tees in prepa­ra­tion for the upcom­ing 60-day ses­sion in Jan­u­ary. On Fri­day, I spoke before the Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Com­mit­tee to let them know of the work we are doing to fol­low up on September’s Rain­for­est in the Desert sum­mit and to engage more directly in eco­nomic devel­op­ment. I laid before them a num­ber of our ini­tia­tives and asked for their sup­port. The pre­vi­ous week I pre­sented to the Health and Human Ser­vices com­mit­tee about UNM’s vision for a School of Pub­lic Health. In response to House Memo­r­ial 43, which requests a fea­si­bil­ity study for a School of Pub­lic Health, UNM has pro­vided for­mal input to the Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion. Our assess­ment is that UNM is well posi­tioned to estab­lish a CEPH-accredited School of Pub­lic Health.

I have been very pleased with the dis­cus­sions that have taken place with all of the Leg­isla­tive com­mit­tees I’ve addressed. As the rep­re­sen­ta­tive arm of our state gov­ern­ment, the Leg­is­la­tors are speak­ing for the indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies and groups in their dis­tricts who are our stake­hold­ers. I am heart­ened to see how well regarded UNM is by most of our Leg­is­la­tors, who know that UNM is focused on excel­lence in education.

Kel­logg Foun­da­tion
Our qual­ity and com­mit­ment to excel­lence also serves as a mag­net that attracts other insti­tu­tions to want to part­ner with us. Last week I spent some time with the Kel­logg Foun­da­tion as part of panel that included Albu­querque Mayor Richard Berry, Edu­ca­tion Secretary-designate Hanna Skan­dera and CNM Pres­i­dent Kathy Wino­grad. We heard from the foun­da­tion about their com­mit­ment to invest­ing in New Mex­ico, which is focused on fund­ing long-term pro­grams that improve out­comes and oppor­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren. UNM already has some on-going grants and con­tracts through the Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion, and we are open to oppor­tu­ni­ties for more collaboration.

Gen­eral Oblig­a­tion Bonds
Early vot­ing has started in New Mex­ico, so I will end this week with one more plea for your help in pro­mot­ing the Gen­eral Oblig­a­tion Bonds on the Novem­ber 6 bal­lot. Gen­eral Oblig­a­tion Bond C for higher edu­ca­tion will fund $119.4 in infra­struc­tural improve­ments for uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges across the state. UNM will receive $24.5 mil­lion that go to the ren­o­va­tion of chem­istry and biol­ogy facil­i­ties. The GO Bonds will not raise taxes. I strongly encour­age you to talk with your fam­ily and friends about the GO Bonds and why they are impor­tant for our stu­dents and for New Mexico.

Lovelace Insur­ance Con­cerns
For those employ­ees and retirees that are mem­bers of Lovelace Health Plan through UNM, you may have read and/or heard con­flict­ing infor­ma­tion regard­ing dead­lines for choos­ing either a new insur­ance com­pany or a new med­ical provider for patients of ABQ Health Part­ners doc­tors. Cus­tomer rep­re­sen­ta­tives from both enti­ties have report­edly told patients that the dead­line is Thurs­day, Nov. 8, while the State Insur­ance Super­in­ten­dent pub­li­cally stated that it would be the end of the year; they are all sup­posed to meet this Wednes­day to work out a writ­ten agree­ment. We have asked Lovelace for infor­ma­tion regard­ing the dead­line, and have not yet had a response. I would like to assure our employ­ees and retirees who are in this posi­tion that we will con­tinue to advo­cate for solu­tions that go beyond the pro­posed short-term exten­sion and will work with your UNM gov­er­nance groups to facil­i­tate fur­ther com­mu­ni­ca­tion as it becomes available.

Have a great week, and Go Lobos!

Bob