DAILY LOBO new mexico
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February 9, 2012
thursday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Board postpones student fee deliberations by Luke Holmen
luke.holmen@gmail.com Despite aims to decrease the amount students pay in fees next year, the Student Fee Review Board voted unanimously Wednesday night to set the minimum fee amount for next year to the same as it is this year. The board unanimously agreed to increase fees from the $460 agreed upon at the outset of the board’s meetings in January to $486.49, the same amount as this year. The board’s final recommendation will likely be a higher dollar amount at the end of its deliberations. The board was unable to agree on how to allocate student fees by the end of Wednesday night’s meeting and adjourned at 10:30 p.m, after four hours of debate. The board plans to reconvene Monday to finish hashing out which student organizations get what amounts. SFRB Vice Chair and ASUNM President Jaymie Roybal said the original dollar amount was not sufficient to fund all of the organizations that support students on campus. “I personally found it hard to make a (budget) for $460,” she said. “I couldn’t make recommendations for all the groups without cutting, and I think a lot of on-campus groups do a lot of good.” SFRB Chair and GPSA President Katie Richardson cautioned the board to consider the cost to students before raising fees. She said the board has spent 25 hours listening to hearings from organizations that requested funding, which might cloud the board’s judgment on what amount is appropriate to charge students in fees. “What we haven’t spent is 25 hours over the last month considering student pocketbooks,” she said. Despite Richardson’s concerns, the board voted unanimously to raise the fee amount. Board member and ASUNM Chief of Staff Cassie Thompson said SFRB has become a last resort
Isabel Hees / Daily Lobo Left to right: Angelica Gallegos, Jaymie Roybal and Japji Hundal deliberate student fee allocation recommendations. Their recommendations will be submitted to UNM President David Schmidly for approval. for funding student services after state and University sources are exhausted. “We had talked about looking for other ways that these groups might be funded other than on the backs of students, but if we don’t fund these groups and assume (the University or the state will fund them), I think we are taking a step backward before we are taking a step forward,” she said. Thompson said students want more services and lower fees at the same time, which is impossible.
“Students (complain) about cut hours at the libraries, or at Johnson, or printing, but they complain student fees are too high,” she said. “The question is, ‘What is more important, students paying a little more fees, or having a little more money in their pocketbook to pay the rent?’” The board made non-binding allocations for 10 of the 27 student organizations for next year, funding every group for the full amount requested. Most of the organizations
reviewed were organizations requesting small amounts of funding. If the group continues to fund organizations at the full amount, student fees could rise to as much as $715 per student. But the board members agreed keeping student fees as low as possible was a priority. “When it came to actually putting numbers, I think something more reasonable is closer to $500, but … we do need to keep in mind students are paying (for this),” said Dylan Hoffman, board member and
ASUNM Chief Justice. The group plans to vote on funding for each organization twice before deciding its final recommendation: once to determine an ideal amount of funding, and a second time to bring total student fees down by deciding which organizations will take a cut. The board debated on how much to fund organizations including the UNM Children’s Campus, which provides day care and family support
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State budget, new funding formula pass House by Alexandra Swanberg aswanny@unm.edu
The state budget (House Bill 2) passed unanimously in the House Wednesday night. The Higher Education Funding Formula for the State of New Mexico will change from an enrollment-based system to a performancebased system, which supporters of the change said will give UNM additional funds and raise graduation rates. The new funding formula allocates funds according to the number of courses completed by students and the number of students that graduate. Previously, the formula was based on the number of students enrolled. Rep. Ray Begaye (D, Shiprock) said the new formula provides universities with more incentive to increase retention and graduation rates. “I know from the students coming into the
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higher education setting, two years or four years, there’s been some indicators that students do drop out, so there’s a greater loss when students drop out of higher ed and complete at other schools,” he said. “This funding formula fixes it.” Richard Jones is a House Appropriations and Finance analyst. He said UNM’s appropriation, $284.6 million for fiscal year 2013, is 5.7 percent more than the current fiscal year. The committee allocated $749.3 million for higher education institutions, a 5.4 percent increase from the last fiscal year. This appropriation also included a $1 million increase for the Health Sciences Center. Of the total higher education budget, $29 million was allocated for the new funding formula, which awards universities based on student course completion and the number of degrees and certificates granted in the past academic year.
Jones said $15.5 million was awarded to universities based on student course completion, and $13.5 million was awarded based on the total number of certificates and degrees awarded by universities in the past academic year. Other Notable Bills SB 21, if passed, would fund $835,000 monthly, or an estimated $10 million annually, from gross receipts tax, to promote energy technology, industry and education growth. If passed, a committee created by the Senate will manage the fund and decide how to spend the allocation. SB 16, if passed, would give a $5,000 credit to companies to hire New Mexico graduates within 18 months of their graduation by enacting “new sections of the income tax act and the corporate income and franchise tax
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act,” according to the bill, creating incentive for state businesses to hire New Mexico graduates. Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, said UNM students have done an exceptional job lobbying in favor of the bill, and said he believes it will pass easily. HB 35 requires agendas for public meetings to be posted 72 hours before the scheduled meeting. It passed unanimously in the House Health and Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday and goes before a vote of the House floor. This means that meetings hosted by the regents, ASUNM, GPSA, and other organizations would be required to adhere to this law Rep. Jim Hall ,R-Los Alamos, said one attendee at the HHGAC hearing expressed concern that the bill will prevent last minute agenda items from being added, a problem for committees that meet only a few times a year. Hall said he did not see this as an issue.
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