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Full-time students could see a $17.40 increase in their student fees next year if the Student Fee Review Board’s recommendations are adopted.
On March 1, the SFRB completed its final recommendations and submitted them to the Strategic Budget Leadership Team, which will discuss them over spring break with the UNM Board of Regents.
According to a document released by the SFRB, the recommended 3.1 percent increase in student fees for full-time students would result in a total of $570.71 per full-time student, up from last year’s $553.31 per student.
The SFRB budgeted $141,060, which would amount to a $6.01 increase per full-time student, for minimum wage increases for student employees in accordance with Albuquerque’s minimum wage increase, enacted Jan. 1.
The minimum wage increase was a ballot measure voted into law by a two-thirds majority of voters last November. It raised the city’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour.
According to a spreadsheet released along with the document, the single largest funding increase request came from UNM IT Initiatives, which requested a $61.08 increase per full-time student. The SFRB did not recommend its requested increase, and its funding level from last year — $16.39 per full-time student — was maintained.
Lobo Athletics requested a $17.38 increase per student, which the SFRB declined. The SFRB maintained Athletics’ funding at last year’s $131.75 per full-time student.
That $131.75 from last year includes the Board of Regents’ $50 increase to Lobo Athletics, which was not included in last year’s SFRB recommendations. Last year, the SFRB recommended an $81.75 per full-time student increase for Lobo Athletics. That amount was the same amount that Lobo Athletics had received the year before last.
The organization that received the highest recommended fee allocation for next year is Student Health and Counseling at $194.04 per full-time student, an increase of $2.21 per student from last year. Lobo Athletics is in second place, followed by the SUB, with the board’s recommendation to maintain its $66.02 in full-time student fees from last year.
Nine organizations are recommended to receive a student fee increase, including Student Health and Counseling, SUB Repair and Replacement, the Women’s Resource Center, Popejoy Hall, Community Learning and Public Service, African American Student Services, American Indian Student Services, El Centro de La Raza and the Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color.
Thirteen different campus services, including Athletics, KUNM, Career Services, the Global Education Office and Recreational Services, are recommended to receive the same funding next year as they did this year.
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Two organizations received a recommended decrease in funding from student fees: University Libraries’ recommendation was a $108 total decrease and UNM’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions/UNM’s Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention received a recommended $390 total decrease.
CASAA/COSAP asked for its decrease, which would amount to a $0.02 drop in fees per full-time student. University Libraries, however, had asked for a $1.3 million increase, which would amount to a $22.29 fee increase per student. Its recommended decrease would result in a $0.14 fee decrease per full-time student.
In the document, the SFRB said it did not believe student fees are the appropriate avenue for University Libraries to seek funding, and that the organization should instead seek funding from the UNM Instruction & General Programs fund, which supports the overall academic mission of the University.
Due to the fact that the Sustainability Studies Program did not submit an application this year, the spreadsheet indicated that it would receive no money from student fees.
All of the first-time applicants, including the Veterans Resource Center, the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Formula SAE race car project, the Division of Equity & Inclusion’s Men of Color Initiative, and the Julian Samora Legacy Project were recommended to receive no funding.
The SFRB stated in the document there are more appropriate avenues of funding these organizations could pursue, rather than turning to student fees.
The SFRB also approved one-time funding requests from Popejoy Hall, the LGBTQ Resource Center, the Women’s Resource Center, Parking and Transportation Services, El Centro de La Raza and African American Student Services. However, it declined requests from University Libraries, for the reasons outlined above, and American Indian Student Services.
AISS’s $10,000 request was to cover travel costs related to student recruitment, a cost which the SFRB stated in the document that it did not feel was appropriate to pass on to students.
The Daily Lobo attempted to contact ASUNM for further comment but received no response.
