by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
The two largest higher education institutions in the state have joined forces.
The Board of Regents approved an agreement between UNM and Central New Mexico Community College at its meeting Tuesday.
The agreement outlines how UNM and CNM will work together in Rio Rancho, CNM President Kathie Winograd said.
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The two schools will have campuses next to each other near Rio Rancho's new downtown pending voter approval of a tax increase in the November elections, Winograd said.
CNM's board also approved the agreement Tuesday.
UNM President David Schmidly said it was a no-brainer.
"This is my new soul mate," Schmidly said, referring to Winograd. "I've found she's passionate about what I'm passionate about, and that's student success."
Winograd said she and Schmidly worked together on the project for a couple months.
The schools will be able to share resources at the Rio Rancho campuses, such as libraries, Winograd said.
The agreement will make it easier to go from CNM to UNM by focusing on student success rather than which school gets the most students, she said.
"We won't compete with each other," she said. "We're going to create a friendly transition."
CNM will have the first building, but UNM will offer classes through it.
"The thing that CNM can provide right away is a building," Winograd said.
UNM will offer only popular upper-division courses at first, Schmidly said.
Students will be able to take the first two years of coursework through CNM and finish up with UNM classes, he said.
UNM faculty for the campus will be hired through main campus, he said.
"That way we don't end up with two standards of faculty," he said.
Schmidly said students will be surveyed to find out which classes are needed on the new campus.
The agreement is only the
beginning of getting both schools fully operational in Rio Rancho, he said.
Rio Rancho residents will vote on a tax to fund the CNM campus in November, Winograd said.
"The tax increase is $116 for every $100,000 for the taxable value of a house," she said.
Although funding the campuses will require increased taxes in the city, Schmidly said the agreement offsets some of those increases.
It will lower the cost of developing in Rio Rancho for CNM and UNM, he said.
"Taxpayers save money because collaboration makes it cheaper," he said. "When two institutions can share it, it costs less than when one has to bear the full brunt."
The development of the campuses will benefit Rio Rancho, said Debbi Moore, president of the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce.
"Anytime you have an educational facility, it helps economic growth," she said. "It would be a tremendous educational aspect for our community."
