Regents ready to set budget

Today the Board of Regents will finalize next year’s budget, which includes a 7.9 percent increase in tuition and fees.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. and runs until 11:30 a.m. in SUB Ballroom C. The regents formulated the amount of tuition and fee increase at their annual Budget Summit on April 2, and then based the rest of the budget around it, said Susan McKinsey, UNM spokeswoman. McKinsey said that any changes to the increases in student fees and tuition would be difficult this late in the process, but not impossible.

“The regents can make any changes to the budget they want,” she said. “Changes at this point to tuition and fees would be full-scale changes in the budget, but they can still do it.”

However, the regents are supposed to submit the budget to the state by Monday, McKinsey said.
“By law, we’re supposed to get it there, so it’s something we’re supposed to do,” she said.

Melissa Trent, who participated in the Student Voice for Student Fees movement, said students should attend so regents understand how much students care about how the budget affects them.

“It’s crucial that we have students’ presence so when regents look out they can see students that they’re affecting,” she said.

Student Voice for Student Fees was formed by ASUNM and GPSA after Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, vice president of Student Affairs, recommended that student fees not increase in late March. The Student Fee Review Board recommended that student fees increase by $10.10.

Breanna Hastings, who also participated in the movement, said student presence at the meeting will show the regents that students are in favor of the student fee increase. She said students can voice any concerns during public comment.

“We’ll definitely sign up for public comment and try to let the regents know that we respect the administration and the whole process,” she said. “We just really want the SFRB recommendations to be upheld.”

GPSA President Lissa Knudsen said she will discuss funding for faculty at the meeting.
“I really want to see a very clear graph that shows how many faculty we should have for the enrollment we have, how many we’re going to hire and if that really is going to take us beyond baseline,” she said.

Knudsen said there is $1.5 million in the budget allocated to hiring new faculty, but she isn’t sure if that is enough.

“If we invested our money into faculty, then they would likely bring in more money than we spend on them,” she said. “If they start getting really efficient at grants, the grants will start covering their salary. I think that would be the best fiscal move for us to make.”