Improper transferring of credit hours for branch campus students and understanding the branches' roles at UNM are problems the Board of Regents has been working to solve in recent years.
Along with members of the board, officials from the Taos and Gallup branches say they are concerned with issues for students of the four branch campuses.
"UNM branch campuses have distinct missions," said Beth Miller, executive director of the Gallup branch. "Branch campuses are catalysts for economic change by offering vocational training, community education and work force development programs."
UNM has branch campuses in Gallup, Las Alamos, Taos and Valencia.
Good communication is important between the branches and main campus because of their distinctly different functions, Miller said.
Alicia Chavez, executive director of the Taos campus, said she is concerned about the difficulty students have transferring credits from Taos to Albuquerque.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Chavez said she is concerned that it is easier for her students to transfer credits to New Mexico State University or Highlands University than it is to transfer credits to UNM's main campus.
"The Regents do not understand the role of the branch campuses to the University as a whole," Miller said.
UNM Provost Brian Foster said in the last two to three years the board has tried to establish better communication between the branches and the main campus.
"We could do a better job of advising students about branch campuses," Foster said.
The relationship between all the campuses is similar to the relationship between the School of Engineering and the law school at UNM, Foster said.
"They all have different admissions processes, purposes and their own standards, which makes it extremely difficult to put them all together," he said.
Among the measures the board has taken to improve interactions between branch campuses is the implementation of mandatory branch boards of regents.
The branch boards' purposes are to bridge the communication gap between the main campus and respective branches, Miller said.
UNM regents have also attended retreats at the branch campuses to improve relations between the institutions.
An advisory council also has been created to foster communication among advisers at the various campuses, Foster said.
Foster also said "nothing is perfect" and that interaction between the University and the branch campuses could improve.
Chavez said main campus officials are trying to better represent the branch campuses by planning meetings, retreats and advising committees.
Overall, the University is doing a good job of improving its representation of the branch campuses, she said.
"I can call up the main campus any time and feel that they would be responsive and helpful in solving problems with students or issues here at the Gallup branch," Miller said.
