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Category Archives: UNM Talk

UNM Response to Tweet by Professor Geoffrey Miller

June 3, 2013 | By Dianne Anderson

The fol­low­ing state­ment is the UNM response to provoca­tive tweets made by Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­ogy Geof­frey Miller.

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico admin­is­tra­tion and fac­ulty were sur­prised by Dr. Geof­frey Miller’s tweet. We are deeply con­cerned about the impact of the state­ment, which in no way reflects the poli­cies or admis­sion stan­dards of UNM. We are inves­ti­gat­ing every aspect of this inci­dent and will take appro­pri­ate action.

When UNM’s Depart­ment chair learned of the tweet, she con­tacted Pro­fes­sor Miller, who is cur­rently on unpaid leave from UNM while at NYU.  He told her that his com­ment on Twit­ter was part of a research project. We are look­ing into the valid­ity of this asser­tion, and will take appro­pri­ate mea­sures. As mem­bers of the UNM com­mu­nity, we are all respon­si­ble for demon­strat­ing good judg­ment when using social media or other com­mu­ni­ca­tions vehicles.

Media Con­tact: Dianne Ander­son, (505) 277‑1807; email: danderson@unm.edu

The fol­low­ing video is a inter­view from UNM Psy­chol­ogy Chair Jane Ellen Smith about this incident.

 

Posted in UNM Talk | |

President Frank’s Weekly Perspective – 5.13.2013

May 13, 2013 | By UCAM

Fun­da­men­tal to UNM’s mis­sion as the state’s flag­ship uni­ver­sity is the ini­ti­a­tion and sup­port of inno­v­a­tive problem-solving strate­gies to improve the qual­ity of life in New Mexico’s com­mu­ni­ties. New Mexico’s nat­ural resources, geog­ra­phy, cul­ture, and native indus­try afford UNM unique research and edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties, and many of the his­tor­i­cally strong pro­grams at UNM cor­re­spond to the state’s dis­tinct attrib­utes. Through the cul­ti­va­tion of University-community part­ner­ships, we are com­mit­ted to respond­ing to the chang­ing needs of our com­mu­ni­ties, state and world by shar­ing our exper­tise, knowl­edge, resources and discoveries.

Inno­vate ABQ: A Highly-Connected Com­mu­nity
Uni­ver­si­ties have become the fore­front of the knowl­edge econ­omy. Research gen­er­ated inno­va­tions are the back­bone of eco­nomic devel­op­ment, cre­at­ing knowl­edge jobs which in turn gen­er­ate tra­di­tional jobs. Inno­vate ABQ is a shared effort to cre­ate an inno­va­tion ini­tia­tive with the city, county, state and pri­vate part­ners. This project will inte­grate UNM’s edu­ca­tional and research capac­ity into com­mu­nity efforts to build a high-tech econ­omy in Albu­querque and Cen­tral New Mex­ico. UNM will be involved in build­ing a high-tech econ­omy that cre­ates knowledge-based jobs, and in engag­ing our com­mu­nity in rais­ing the eco­nomic pro­file of the state. Under my lead­er­ship, STC’s eco­nomic devel­op­ment team will rep­re­sent UNM in eco­nomic devel­op­ments out­side of UNM as well as being the point of con­tact for inter­nal UNM activ­i­ties related to eco­nomic devel­op­ment. We are work­ing with at team to final­ize our pro­gram, which will lead to the selec­tion of a site.

UNM @ Mesa del Sol
Mesa del Sol is a true public-private part­ner­ship, hav­ing been devel­oped in con­junc­tion with part­ners that include the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico and the New Mex­ico State Land Office, and the sup­port of the City of Albu­querque, Bernalillo County and the State of New Mex­ico. UNM has been part of Mesa del Sol since its incep­tion in 2006, and as a ten­ant, we have cer­tainly ben­e­fited from its growth. Our excep­tional Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Film and Dig­i­tal Media (IFDM) pro­gram, which has a loca­tion at Mesa del Sol, has been built on suc­cess­ful part­ner­ships with aca­d­e­mic, indus­try and com­mu­nity part­ners. Last week I joined Mike Daley, the new CEO of Mesa del Sol, when he announced that UNM employ­ees want­ing to live at Mesa del Sol who con­tract to pur­chase a home at the planned com­mu­nity will receive a $5,000 incen­tive if they pur­chase by Sept. 2, 2013. I toured the model homes and they look great!

“The Lobo Expe­ri­ence:” UNM’s Next Insti­tu­tional Spot
Last Mon­day, Janet and I had the plea­sure of join­ing six of our tal­ented stu­dents as they pre­miered the new UNM insti­tu­tional spot they cre­ated this semes­ter. This ad will be shown on TV dur­ing ath­letic events over the course of the next year. The spot shows a Lobo tran­si­tion­ing into stu­dents per­form­ing the many extra­or­di­nary things they do, from ath­let­ics to the arts and health care. What dis­tin­guishes this spot among so many other insti­tu­tions’ spots is that this team filmed a live wolf, Zoerro, to empha­size the feroc­ity and pride that our Lobos share. Much like this beau­ti­ful wild ani­mal, our stu­dents, staff and fac­ulty carry them­selves with dig­nity, rep­re­sent­ing this uni­ver­sity and how the Lobo expe­ri­ence can bet­ter a per­son. It is truly remark­able to see the pro­fes­sional level of work that our stu­dents can pro­duce. I com­mend Uni­ver­sity Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Mar­ket­ing on the suc­cess of their intern­ship pro­gram, and these stu­dents who have gone above and beyond what was expected of them. I encour­age every­one to learn more about the intern­ship, the stu­dents, and the new UNM ad.

Have a great week and Go Lobos!

Bob

Posted in UNM Talk | |

Office of the President: Weekly Perspective — 5.6.2013

May 6, 2013 | By UCAM

Pres­i­dent Frank’s Weekly Perspective

Good morn­ing.

This week marks the last of the spring semes­ter. For many of our stu­dents, the time has come to fin­ish a the­sis, a project or a paper, take that last exam, and per­haps do a final nos­tal­gic stroll around the Duck Pond.

For all of you who are grad­u­at­ing this week, con­grat­u­la­tions! I mean that most sin­cerely. I remem­ber my UNM grad­u­a­tions – and, each time, that feel­ing that it had all been worth it. It is a moment of great pride for you, your fam­ily and friends who have sup­ported you in your edu­ca­tional pur­suits, and for all of us at UNM. Whether you are an advanced degree can­di­date or an under­grad­u­ate mem­ber of the class of 2013, you are grad­u­at­ing from a dis­tinc­tive uni­ver­sity: dis­tin­guished in spe­cific dis­ci­plines, but also incred­i­bly broad; engaged with new ideas; cul­tur­ally con­nected; home of the Lobos; and the flag­ship uni­ver­sity for the state New Mexico.

I can­not help but join in the excite­ment of our newest grad­u­ates, who have demon­strated out­stand­ing aca­d­e­mic growth and achieve­ment, and will be mov­ing for­ward on their jour­neys to become con­tribut­ing global cit­i­zens. Each of you has your own unique story and rea­son for purs­ing higher edu­ca­tion through your var­i­ous degrees. As you ven­ture into the work world or per­haps higher lev­els of acad­e­mia, you may pon­der what lies ahead and reflect upon what has passed so quickly over the last few years.

Please know that all of us here at UNM will be here to help and sup­port you as much as we can. Addi­tion­ally, our UNM Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion is here to help you stay in touch with all the friends you have made. We will be think­ing of you — and always be here when you want to return for a visit or per­haps another degree. We are hon­ored to count you among the more than 155,000-strong active UNM Lobo Alumni!

My only regret for this grad­u­a­tion week is that I can­not be there to join you. My youngest son, Brian, is also grad­u­at­ing from Kent State, where I was Provost. Janet and I will be attend­ing his com­mence­ment, join­ing your fam­i­lies in the pride of this hard– and well-earned mile­stone that we have watched progress from fresh­man through senior year. How­ever, I am avail­able to you via email for any thoughts or ques­tions you may have, and if I can­not answer them myself, I will put you in touch with some­one who can. This means your alumni sup­port net­work begins right now, with me, at unmpres@unm.edu. I would also encour­age all of you share your expe­ri­ences and insights with future Lobos, reach­ing out to the young peo­ple you may know who are con­sid­er­ing UNM. There is no bet­ter source of inspi­ra­tion than you who have ben­e­fited from and share a pas­sion for UNM.

My spe­cial thanks to our out­stand­ing fac­ulty and ded­i­cated staff, who have chal­lenged our stu­dents to be coura­geous, ded­i­cated and inno­v­a­tive, and to leave their mark on the world. For those stu­dents who will be return­ing, and to those who will join me in work­ing here through­out the sum­mer, thank you for your tire­less efforts dur­ing the semes­ter and I look for­ward to see­ing you over the next few months or upon your return in the fall.

Con­grat­u­la­tions once again to the class of 2013, have a great week, a won­der­ful sum­mer and, as always, Go Lobos!

Bob

Posted in UNM Talk | |

Tips to Survive Finals

May 3, 2013 | By Benson Hendrix

Finals week is just around the cor­ner and recently we asked UNM stu­dents what they did to sur­vive the upcom­ing week. Some of your responses included:

 

 

 

Hack Col­lege and Zen Col­lege Life also have some great tips on how to get through Finals Week with­out too much strain and stress. Some of the recur­ring themes from both lists, as well as UNM stu­dents, include get­ting enough rest and exer­cise, and not let­ting finals week get to you too much. The day after finals is just another day, more specif­i­cally it’s the first day of sum­mer vaca­tion!  Good luck this finals week, Lobos! And have a great summer.

Posted in UNM Talk | |

UNM Planning Improvements to Trail Area Around the North Golf Course

May 3, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
UNM North Golf Course

UNM North Golf Course

Plans to reha­bil­i­tate the trail area around the UNM North Golf Course are begin­ning to move. In May, the UNM Board of Regents will be asked to con­sider a con­tract for an archi­tec­tural team to design the irri­ga­tion sys­tem improve­ments and the land­scape alternations.

In the mean­time UNM is prepar­ing the area. Lisa Mar­bury strate­gic plan­ner for UNM Insti­tu­tional Sup­port Ser­vices says that dead trees around the course have been removed and some tree trim­ming has already been completed.

Last year, UNM Regents approved an agree­ment with Bernalillo County that gave the UNM $1.5 mil­lion from the County’s Open Space fund in exchange for a con­ser­va­tion ease­ment on the 80-acre North Course property. UNM’s license agree­ment with Bernalillo County allows the trail around the golf course to be used as county open space in return for a $1.5 mil­lion pay­ment from the county.  The money will be used for design and improve­ments to the golf course irri­ga­tion sys­tem which was built in the 1940’s. Additional trees will be planted and com­bined with other landscaping.

“The North Golf Course is a valu­able urban Open Space for not just the Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity but for all of Bernalillo County,” Dis­trict 3 Com­mis­sioner Mag­gie Hart Steb­bins said. “It’s excit­ing to see the plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion work under­way and I’m look­ing for­ward to the many improve­ments sched­uled for the com­ing year.”

There are also plans to improve por­tions of the trail sys­tem around the perime­ter of the golf course for walk­ers and runners. Some areas of the trail are infor­mal and need to be more clearly marked, Project Man­ager Maria Dion says.

The new trail design will com­ply with National Col­le­giate Ath­letic Asso­ci­a­tion require­ments for cross coun­try con­fer­ence and cham­pi­onship events. UNM and county lead­ers will hold an open house so mem­bers of the com­mu­nity can give feed­back on the design of the trail improve­ments in June, but no date has been set.

Sara Kop­lik, pres­i­dent of the North Cam­pus Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion says, “I am delighted that the uni­ver­sity, the county and the neigh­bor­hood are work­ing together to bring the first sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments to the golf course in many decades.  Pre­serv­ing and pro­tect­ing this cher­ished green space enhances our community. Working together, we achieve so much more.”

Plans will be drawn and com­pleted over the sum­mer and the course will be closed in late fall so the actual improve­ments can be done. The course and trail sys­tem is expected to reopen in Feb. 2014.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in UNM Talk | |

President Frank’s Weekly Perspective – 4.29.13

April 29, 2013 | By UCAM

National and global trends in higher edu­ca­tion have demon­strated that aca­d­e­mic pro­grams and insti­tu­tions such as UNM must be trans­formed to serve the chang­ing edu­ca­tional needs of a knowl­edge econ­omy. We must embrace new mod­els of learn­ing, includ­ing dig­i­tal and online deliv­ery tools, to make edu­ca­tional con­tent avail­able to degree-seeking stu­dents wher­ever they are, when­ever they need it. In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing the tra­di­tional bricks-and-mortar uni­ver­sity expe­ri­ence, UNM can and must respond to the forces of dis­rup­tive inno­va­tion. Our strate­gic efforts through UNM2020 and the exam­i­na­tion of new ways to con­struct the Uni­ver­sity bud­get have pro­vided opti­mistic analy­ses of where our uni­ver­sity and its tra­di­tions have come from and how we need to change for the future to sus­tain long-term insti­tu­tional success.

Plan­ning for the Future of UNM West
We have an incred­i­ble oppor­tu­nity for the deliv­ery of unique and spe­cial­ized degrees at our cam­pus at UNM West, and expand­ing options for degree com­ple­tion to our stu­dents. This unique exten­sion of the UNM main cam­pus inter­sects with the com­mu­nity of Rio Ran­cho, with which we have enjoyed a mutu­ally sup­port­ive and pro­duc­tive part­ner­ship for the past sev­eral years. As we look toward a 10-year hori­zon for the cam­pus, we devel­oped some con­cepts for the future devel­op­ment of UNM West based on emerg­ing edu­ca­tional and work­force trends that will be pre­sented to the cam­pus’ stake­hold­ers. We are now in the process of solic­it­ing com­mu­nity input from the cit­i­zens of Rio Ran­cho to lay plans for the future of the UNM West cam­pus. There will be a com­mu­nity meet­ing at the UNM West cam­pus this evening from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Final­ists Selected for Vice Provost of Extended Learn­ing
Deliv­er­ing new mod­els of edu­ca­tion will require the devel­op­ment and explo­ration of new modes of teach­ing and tech­nolo­gies. Ear­lier this year, UNM Provost Chaouki Abdal­lah announced the merger of Extended Uni­ver­sity and Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion into a new divi­sion of Extended Learn­ing. This divi­sion will take UNM’s edu­ca­tional resources to the cit­i­zens of New Mex­ico and around the world, offer­ing both credit and non-credit classes to every type of learner. As the name implies, it is geared to extend the reach of UNM’s classes and pro­grams beyond our phys­i­cal cam­pus, deliv­er­ing high-quality edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties to strengthen and expand UNM’s out­reach to exist­ing and new audi­ences and pro­mote life­long learn­ing that will enhance our stu­dents’ lives – both pro­fes­sion­ally and personally.

The selec­tion of the best indi­vid­ual to lead the Divi­sion of Extended Learn­ing is crit­i­cal to our suc­cess. This week the fol­low­ing can­di­dates will be vis­it­ing the UNM cam­pus for open forums:

J. Kim McNutt: April 29, 3 — 4 p.m., SUB, Santa Ana A & B
Mon­ica Orozco: May 1, 3:30 — 4:30 p.m., SUB, Lobo A & B
Cur­tis Madi­son: May 2, 4 — 5 p.m., SUB, Lobo A & B
William Get­ter: May 7, 2:45 — 3:45 p.m., SUB, Lobo A & B

I hope you are all enjoy­ing the excep­tional weather and are able to take some time to appre­ci­ate our beau­ti­ful cam­pus. Have a great week and Go Lobos!

Bob

Posted in UNM Talk | |

Office of the President: Weekly Perspective – 4.22.13

April 22, 2013 | By UCAM

President’s Weekly Per­spec­tive – 4.22.13

“We make a liv­ing by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Win­ston Churchill

Good morn­ing.

For count­less mem­bers of the UNM com­mu­nity, the spirit of giv­ing is evi­dent through sin­gle acts of com­pas­sion and brav­ery to com­mu­nity ser­vice projects and ful­fill­ing career choices that advance both per­sonal well-being and that of our soci­ety. This week, I am proud to rec­og­nize how UNM’s com­mit­ment to pro­duc­ing active, engaged, and effec­tive cit­i­zens is reflected across the uni­ver­sity. Each of us can make a dif­fer­ence — at home, through our work, and in our com­mu­ni­ties — to help build a bet­ter future for our stu­dents, our com­mu­ni­ties, and our nation. Thank you for all that each of you does to make our world a bet­ter place.

The Lobo Spirit Shines Bright in Boston
Over the past sev­eral days, we have all been pro­cess­ing the sense­less tragedy of the Boston Marathon bomb­ings. The after­math showed a num­ber of good Samar­i­tans among the first respon­ders. Danielle Deines, a first-year res­i­dent physi­cian at the UNM School of Med­i­cine, was one of those heroes. She imme­di­ately began to assist in triag­ing those injured at the Boston Marathon, offer­ing her aid even though she her­self had been treated in the med­ical tent prior to the explo­sions. Danielle is an exam­ple of the count­less indi­vid­u­als who responded coura­geously and self­lessly to do what­ever they could to pre­serve lives, and she is a true reflec­tion of the Lobo spirit we value here at UNM.

UNM Leads Peace Corps Volunteer-Producing His­panic Serv­ing Insti­tu­tions
This year the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico leads the list of Peace Corps volunteer-producing His­panic Serv­ing Insti­tu­tions (HSIs), with 24 under­grad­u­ate alumni cur­rently serv­ing as Peace Corps vol­un­teers and 439 alumni hav­ing served since 1961. These grad­u­ates are well pre­pared for the chal­lenge of inter­na­tional ser­vice. They become lead­ers in their host com­mu­ni­ties and carry the spirit of ser­vice and lead­er­ship back with them when they return home, uphold­ing the Peace Corps’ mis­sion to pro­mote world peace and friend­ship and a bet­ter under­stand­ing between Amer­i­cans and peo­ple of other countries.

UNM Men­tor­ship Oppor­tu­nity
Big Broth­ers Big Sis­ters is launch­ing a new men­tor­ing pro­gram that I feel will be a great fit for fac­ulty and exempt staff at UNM. The pro­gram is called mentor2.0 and works to place men­tors with ninth grade stu­dents at South Val­ley Acad­emy located on Coors and Black SW. The pro­gram goal is to grad­u­ate these young peo­ple from high school and have them pre­pared for col­lege. Our goal is to match every incom­ing fresh­man at this school with a UNM men­tor. I real­ize we all work very hard to cre­ate bal­ance in our time for work, fam­ily and ser­vice. While you may have heard about Big Broth­ers Big Sis­ters tra­di­tional pro­grams, mentor2.0 is a bit dif­fer­ent – you men­tor via email. This pro­gram is a fun and easy way to get involved in the com­mu­nity and make a dif­fer­ence, and could be your oppor­tu­nity to make a pos­i­tive impact on a young person’s life. Please join me in mak­ing mentor2.0 a suc­cess. If you are inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pro­gram and are fac­ulty or an exempt staff mem­ber, please request and com­plete the UNM Inter­est Form and return it to LaTre­nia McDaniel, the UNM liai­son for mentor2.0, at 505–277-2695 or lmcdaniel@unm.edu. Let’s see if we can make South Val­ley Acad­emy a UNM men­tored school!

Cel­e­brat­ing Suc­cess in Sus­tain­abil­ity
UNM is com­mit­ted to being a sus­tain­abil­ity leader, and has adopted sus­tain­abil­ity as core value of the uni­ver­sity. Sev­eral events and recog­ni­tions have recently coin­cided that reflect this com­mit­ment in a very real way. For the third year in a row UNM has been included in the Prince­ton Review’s Guide to Green Col­leges and is the only higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tion in New Mex­ico to be named a “Green Col­lege.” The Green Col­lege Guide is pub­lished in part­ner­ship with the U. S. Green Build­ing Coun­cil and focuses solely on col­leges that have demon­strated a strong com­mit­ment to the envi­ron­ment and sus­tain­abil­ity. Also, last Mon­day, the pho­to­voltaic (PV) instal­la­tion on the Sci­ence and Math Learn­ing Cen­ter was ded­i­cated increas­ing the amount of renew­able energy elec­tric­ity pro­duced on cam­pus to 273 kW; other PV instal­la­tions on cam­pus include Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing, Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion, Yale Park­ing Struc­ture, and Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engineering.

In cel­e­bra­tion of Earth Day, the 5th Annual Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo & Lobo Grow­ers Mar­ket will be held on Tues­day April 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Cor­nell Mall. As the UNM cam­pus is rec­og­nized as a nation­ally rec­og­nized arbore­tum, and in honor of Arbor Day, sev­eral stu­dents groups have orga­nized a series of tree plant­i­ngs and infor­ma­tional work­shops around campus.

To fur­ther empha­size our com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­ity, I am very pleased to announce that Mary Clark has been named the first Sus­tain­abil­ity Man­ager at UNM. Mary has been a UNM employee since 1995 and is cur­rently a grad­u­ate stu­dent in the Mas­ters of Pub­lic Admin­is­tra­tion pro­gram. I am con­fi­dent that she will con­tinue to work to posi­tion as a national model and leader in insti­tu­tional sus­tain­abil­ity through imple­men­ta­tion, edu­ca­tion, out­reach, research, and part­ner­ship. Please join me in con­grat­u­lat­ing Mary on her accomplishment.

UNM Stu­dents Lead­ers in Our Nation and State
The Udall Foun­da­tion announced that Byron “Craig” Williams, a cur­rent law stu­dent at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, is one of 12 stu­dents from 12 tribes and 11 uni­ver­si­ties that have been selected as 2013 Native Amer­i­can Con­gres­sional Interns. Interns were selected the basis of aca­d­e­mic achieve­ment and a demon­strated com­mit­ment to careers in tribal pub­lic pol­icy. Craig is a mem­ber of the Mis­sis­sippi Band of Choctaw Indi­ans, and is cur­rently pur­su­ing a J.D. with a cer­tifi­cate in fed­eral Indian law from the UNM School of Law. This highly regarded intern­ship pro­gram is intended to pro­vide Amer­i­can Indi­ans and Alaska Natives with an insider’s view of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment processes first­hand. Craig will be intern­ing with the U.S. Depart­ment of Jus­tice, Office of Tribal Justice.

The New Mex­ico Space Grant Con­sor­tium (NMSGC) recently awarded 26 Fel­low­ships and Schol­ar­ships to stu­dents across New Mex­ico total­ing $210,000, based on appli­ca­tion infor­ma­tion, fac­ulty rec­om­men­da­tion, GPA, research project, and its align­ment to NASA. Eleven of the recip­i­ents are UNM stu­dents. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Ph.D. stu­dents Heather Buelow, Alek­san­dra Faust, Brid­get McEwen and Alli­son San­tos, and grad­u­ate stu­dents Sebas­t­ian Gomez and Suzanne Gor­don, who were awarded $10,000 each for their research; and to Ph.D. stu­dents Robert Mesler, seniors Daniel Her­rera, Nicole Saave­dra and Joshua Williams, and junior Jon Vigil, who were awarded $5,000 each for their research.

Employee Ben­e­fits Update
UNM is presently faced with a large unfunded post-retirement ben­e­fit lia­bil­ity that, if not cor­rected, will grow each year. This increas­ing lia­bil­ity will jeop­ar­dize UNM’s finan­cial sta­bil­ity and could lead to the com­plete elim­i­na­tion of post-retirement ben­e­fits if not imme­di­ately addressed. The fac­ulty, staff, and retiree mem­bers of the Retiree Health Care Task Force were charged with the task of prepar­ing rec­om­men­da­tions to reduce UNM’s unfunded lia­bil­ity for post-retirement ben­e­fits. Please be aware that there are changes to our retiree health­care, which will require a deci­sion on your part even if you do not know when you will retire from UNM. Before you make this deci­sion, I strongly urge you to attend one of the http://hr.unm.edu/docs/retiree/veba-information-sessions.pdf for staff, fac­ulty and retirees. UNM Human Resources has pro­vided detailed infor­ma­tion regard­ing post-retirement ben­e­fit changes for cur­rent fac­ulty and staff employ­ees and retirees.

Have a great week and Go Lobos!

Bob

Posted in Administration, UNM Talk | |

Final Results from the 2013 New Mexico Legislature

April 8, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Gov­er­nor Susana Mar­tinez waited until the last hour of the last day to take action on sev­eral of the most impor­tant bills to emerge from the 2013 ses­sion of the New Mex­ico Leg­is­la­ture, includ­ing the state bud­get, cap­i­tal out­lay and the bill that keeps the lot­tery schol­ar­ship fund sol­vent for the com­ing year.  All were signed, but with line item vetos

After a line by line com­par­i­son of line-item vetoes with their respec­tive enrolled and engrossed bills, here is a brief syn­op­sis of how UNM fared:

Lot­tery Schol­ar­ship
One of the main pro­vi­sions of SB 113 was one-time fund­ing of nearly $10 mil­lion to help keep the Lot­tery Schol­ar­ship fund sol­vent through the com­ing year.  In her mes­sage, Gov­er­nor Mar­tinez had this to say about that fund:

“We can­not afford to con­tinue to pour money into a fund that is unsus­tain­able with­out adopt­ing mean­ing­ful reform. Regard­less, our stu­dents should not suf­fer as a result of the Legislature’s inabil­ity to take appro­pri­ate action. So, although I am sign­ing this bill, I encour­age law­mak­ers to work together to restruc­ture the lot­tery pro­gram so we can main­tain sol­vency and so the pro­gram is sus­tain­able with­out a con­tin­ued infu­sion of other state funds.”

Cap­i­tal Out­lay
The Gov­er­nor vetoed $4.4 mil­lion in projects from the $218.1 mil­lion in sev­er­ance tax bonds included in SB 60.  Those vetoes took $125,000  out of a total of $10.1 mil­lion in UNM projects.

State Bud­get
Fund­ing to pro­vide a one per­cent pay increase for state and higher edu­ca­tion employ­ees sur­vived in the Gen­eral Appro­pri­a­tions Act of 2013 signed by the Gov­er­nor.  How­ever, $20 mil­lion for the Higher Edu­ca­tion Endow­ment Fund did not.  Explain­ing her line item veto of this fund­ing, the Gov­er­nor said:

“Addi­tion­ally, there is rel­a­tively lit­tle account­abil­ity for how money in the Higher Edu­ca­tion Endow­ment Fund is spent. Fun­nel­ing such a large por­tion of state dol­lars toward a fund like this (which has been used in the past for salary sup­port for pro­fes­sors) also skirts our efforts to reform the higher edu­ca­tion fund­ing for­mula – designed to ensure that higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions are increas­ingly funded based on their abil­ity to edu­cate and grad­u­ate students. ”

Our ana­lysts con­tinue to do a line by line review of the Governor’s exec­u­tive mes­sage, but there appears to be no addi­tional major impact to UNM.

Pen­sion Sol­vency
And in case you’re won­der­ing, the Gov­er­nor the pen­sion sol­vency plan for the Pub­lic Employee Retiree Asso­ci­a­tion.  She signed the ERB sol­vency plan last week.

Look to the Bill Tracker on the Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions web­site for a review of final action on all UNM bills of interest.

Susan McK­in­sey, Office of Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­nity Relations

Posted in News From Santa Fe, UNM Talk | |

Residence Hall Association Promotes “Earth Hour”

March 18, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

The UNM Res­i­dence Hall Asso­ci­a­tion is work­ing with the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­pany of New Mex­ico to observe “Earth Hour” on Sat­ur­day, March 23, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Res­i­dence Hall Asso­ci­a­tion is ask­ing stu­dents who live on cam­pus to turn off all of their elec­tri­cal appli­ances for one hour on Sat­ur­day evening.

Earth Hour is a national ini­tia­tive that was started by the World Wildlife Fund. PNM is ask­ing stu­dents who observe “Earth Hour” to visit their face­book page and leave mes­sages about how they are spend­ing the hour with­out power.

Posted in UNM Talk | |

NM Legislature Ends with Compromise Agreement on Taxes

March 18, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

There is always some drama to be had dur­ing the wan­ing hours of the ses­sion. The great unknown was whether agree­ment on fund­ing to but­tress the lot­tery schol­ar­ship for  the com­ing year would make it out of con­fer­ence com­mit­tee and be adopted on both floors before the session’s adjourn­ment sine die at noon. Where there’s a will …

The con­fer­ence agree­ment on SB113 pumps $10 mil­lion of non-recurring tobacco set­tle­ment reserves into the lot­tery schol­ar­ship fund with an equal amount going to early child­hood pro­grams and another $40 mil­lion for the pro­grams typ­i­cally funded by the tobacco set­tle­ment. Both houses approved the agree­ment with 35 min­utes to spare. No sweat.

The big tax pack­age passed the House with lit­er­ally sec­onds to spare. Much much more exciting.

Review
The $5.9 bil­lion state bud­get awaits action by the Gov­er­nor and a fate far from set­tled. Among its many fea­tures is a 3.5 per­cent increase in state fund­ing for UNM, as well as fund­ing for a one per­cent pay increase and $20 mil­lion to bol­ster the state’s fac­ulty endow­ment fund.

There is $10.1 mil­lion in cap­i­tal out­lay projects  for UNM con­tained in the sev­er­ance tax bond pack­age … money for Castet­ter, Far­ris Engi­neer­ing, cam­pus light­ing, buses and more.   This also sits on Governor’s desk.

So does the ERB sol­vency plan, which was the prod­uct of  a year of hard work by the stake­hold­ers fol­lowed by a few days of polit­i­cal real­ity. The bill with its shared sac­ri­fice and  100.7 per­cent sol­vency promise is hoped to meet exec­u­tive approval.

With this morning’s action and exec­u­tive approval, there should be enough money in the lot­tery schol­ar­ship fund for the com­ing year. But a per­ma­nent fix still has to be nego­ti­ated.   The pro­posed solu­tion by UNM stu­dents never caught trac­tion in House Edu­ca­tion. None of these lot­tery bills made it through.

The state grad­u­ate tax credit made it to Sen­ate Finance rel­a­tively early in the ses­sion never to be seen again, which was a  dis­ap­point­ment for our grad­u­ate stu­dents. Their  bill got caught up in the uncer­tainty of rev­enue avail­abil­ity and sequestration.

These are just some of the high­lights as much more of note to UNM occurred dur­ing the ses­sion. As always you can catch up on all the action via the Bill Tracker on the Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions web­site. It has been reli­giously main­tained and will be through the dead­line for exec­u­tive action on April 5.

A final shout out to the entire gov­ern­ment rela­tions team who lived and breathed all things Round­house these last sev­eral months. It’s time for a well-deserved recharge before the process begins yet again.

Susan McK­in­sey, Office of Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­nity Relations

Posted in News From Santa Fe, UNM Talk | |