The UNM Board of Regents approved a $1.2 billion operating budget for 2001-2002 and $5 million to plan the expansion of UNM Hospital during its June 5 meeting.
The budget included funding for the University and its branch campuses and represents an 8.1 percent increase in funding from this year.
As UNM Budget Director Curtis Porter reviewed the budget with the board, Regent President Larry Willard asked him to highlight the difference between state allocations and UNM’s actual budget.
Porter pointed out that state appropriations made up 20.7 percent of the University’s budget. The other substantial pieces of the anticipated revenue coming from sales and services, which makes up 26.7 percent, and grants and contracts, which makes up 15 percent. The sales mainly come from UNM Hospital and housing and food services, while the grants are mainly the outside support of University research projects.
“When you look at it, the state gives us $26.5 million and we kick in over $90 million, which is a great contributor to the economic development of this state,” Willard said. “I think it’s important the state Legislature understand just how substantial the return on its money really is here. We do a lot for the state with what little we have.”
The budget included an 8.3 percent tuition and fees increase that was heavily contested by students, but made up only 6.3 percent of the University’s anticipated revenue.
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Julie Weaks, interim vice president for business and finance, told the regents that while the University couldn’t be certain about revenue and operating cost, the budget included the administration’s best educated guess about the next fiscal year.
A 6.5 percent salary and compensation increase for UNM faculty and staff also was included in the budget. In a separate action, the regents also approved a 6.5 percent pay increase for UNM President Bill Gordon, making his annual salary $218,802, a $13,000 increase over last year.
During the same meeting, the board approved the site for a new Children’s Hospital and Critical Care Pavilion at UNM Hospital, west of the hospital along Lomas Boulevard and east of the parking structure. The regents also approved $5 million to be spent during the next three years to select an architect, plan the extensive project and determine how to raise funds for the expansion. The planning funds will be provided by UNM Hospital capital funds.
Roger Lujan, director of facility planning, said the estimated cost of the project will be $163 million.
The children’s hospital will be six stories tall with a partial basement, providing about 395,425 square feet of addition space. A new patient entrance will be created on the north side and emergency traffic will remain on the south side of the new addition.
The building will include an expanded emergency department, 72 critical care beds and a children’s hospital. The children’s hospital includes 60 acute care beds, 60 newborn intensive care unit beds, 20 pediatric intensive care unit beds, a children’s emergency department, a birthing center and a well-baby nursery.
Lujan said the hospital has struggled with aging facilities and infrastructure.
“These changes are in keeping with the hospital’s master plan developed in 1998 and will really help make the hospital a much better place for both patients and the staff,” he said.
