UNM’s Board of Regents will take its first step to determine tuition increases and approve an operating budget for 2012. The meeting starts today at 9 a.m.
The Student Fee Review Board spent six hours this semester trying to find a way to reduce student fees, and it did, by 31 cents. But Regent Jack Fortner said at the March 28 budget summit that the board might jack up student fees by about $30 in order to give more funding to Athletics, IT Services and UNM Libraries. He said University parties don’t want Instruction and General funds to go to Athletics, even if it’s for utility costs. “I know some people have heartburn about that, but I don’t,” he said. Fortner said the board is looking to offset a proposed $380,000 cut to Athletics by possibly raising student fees. The Finance and Facilities Committee will meet Monday to discuss the fee increase. Regents will make a decision Tuesday. SFRB chair and ASUNM President Laz Cardenas said students should expect an increase in student fees. “My reaction to it was that I wasn’t surprised, and at the same time, I was a little disappointed,” he said.
Katie Richardson will be the next GPSA president. Richardson received a little more than 50 percent of the votes.
At least 17,000 New Mexicans are homeless, and for one night UNM students can experience what that might be like. Six graduating communication and journalism students, The Happy Campers, organized the event as part of a service-learning assignment, student Bryan Wilcox said. “We hope people leave with a better personal understanding of what is like to be homeless,” he said.
Most of UNM’s peer institutions don’t consider the University their equal, and soon UNM might give in to peer pressure. UNM’s peer institutions haven’t changed since at least the 1990s, and of UNM’s 16 peer institutions, only two schools, University of Utah and University of Washington, count UNM among their peer institutions. The University of Washington had UNM on only one of three lists it uses for self-evaluation, according the University of Washington website. In 2008, Mark Chisholm, director of UNM’s Office of Institutional Research, said then-provost Viola Florez asked UNM to re-evaluate its peers. Chisholm said he compared student body characteristics, such as ethnic profile and number of commuter students, but the project lost steam when Florez left the University, and it’s been on the backburner since. “I don’t know whether or not we’re going to go through the energy of going to the state and requesting a whole bunch of new peers right now,” Chisholm said. “You really need someone at a high-executive level that thinks it’s really important.” Chisholm said it’s hard for UNM to find comparable institutions that are similar across the board.
Gov. Susana Martinez signed an expansion of Katie’s Law into legislation Wednesday at a Rotary Club meeting in Carlsbad.
New regent Bradley Hosmer said UNM can lead the country in changing the education system. Hosmer was the superintendent of the Air Force Academy and the president of the National Defense University before retiring in 1994.
Albuquerque is taking steps to make the city more bike-friendly. Construction workers broke ground Monday on a four-week project to widen El Pueblo Road between Second Street and Edith Boulevard, near the Los Ranchos/Journal Center Rail Runner station.
Students have a chance to elect UNM’s future undergraduate and graduate student leaders during the ASUNM and GPSA elections, but few actually vote. Since 2008, no more than 11 percent of main campus undergraduate students voted in ASUNM spring elections, according to data from ASUNM Elections Adviser Debbie Morris.
UNM Provost Suzanne Ortega will not return to her post in the fall. Ortega’s contract is up for renewal this summer, but she accepted a job offer back east instead of renewing her contract, University President David Schmidly said in his Monday morning e-mail. “We’ll be able to share more about it as the details are finalized, but know that it is a wonderful opportunity, and no one is more deserving of it,” Schmidly wrote.
Don Flanagan, after 16 seasons as UNM women’s basketball head coach, resigned Monday after initially deciding to return to the sidelines next season. The reason for Flanagan’s sudden change of heart: Five freshmen players (Tina Doughty, Erin Boettcher, Morgan Toben, Brianna Taylor and Jasmine Patterson) intended to quit the program, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Michael Thorning announced Monday that he is dropping out of the ASUNM presidential race, three weeks after resigning from his high-ranking position in the president’s cabinet. The former chief-of-staff declared March 8 he’d run against Attorney General Jaymie Roybal, and he said ASUNM president Laz Cardenas cut his chief-of-staff duties in half three days later. “I think I got the sense that it was either going to become a hostile work environment or I wasn’t going to be working there,” Thorning said.
When UNM head men’s basketball coach Steve Alford says “no,” he means “no.” At least for now.
UNM head coach Steve Alford, who in the past hinted that his UNM stay was contingent on continued administrative support, denied reports that he may leave UNM to fill Missouri’s head coaching vacancy.
More than 300 people celebrated labor activist Cesar Chavez’s efforts Saturday. Supporters marched through the downtown Barelas neighborhood to the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Students may have to wait nearly three months to get an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis and prescription from Student Health and Counseling.
The Athletics Department has almost four times more advisers per student than UNM undergraduate degree-granting colleges, and athletes enjoy access to clinical psychologists, learning specialists and student services.
UNM head football coach Mike Locksley will have a lot less to take to the bank if he’s let go at the end of the season or in the future. The Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday that the third-year head coach signed a contract addendum Feb. 28 that reduces his buyout from $1.095 million to $450,000 if the University severs ties with him without cause after the 2011 season. Athletics Director Paul Krebs told the Journal that the restructured deal made “economic sense.” Locksley also stands to benefit from the renegotiated terms. If the Lobos win six games this season, Locksley gets a $50,000 incentive. The revised contract also gives him more wiggle room if he leaves the University on his own volition or for another coaching opportunity.
UNMH reviewed its security policy after a Jan. 4 shooting incident, but the hospital didn’t make changes to its policy.
Someday, UNM Professor Derek Hamilton hopes to eliminate fetal alcohol syndrome. Using lab rats for his research, Hamilton studies the effects of prenatal ethanol consumption because many children suffer with a moderate version of FAS that can go undetected for years. “What you might see in a textbook about fetal alcohol syndrome, that’s full-blown FAS, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
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