DAILY LOBO new mexico
Easy as Pie
thursday
see page 6
September 16, 2010
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Construction not waste of money, project officials say by Ruben Hamming-Green rhammingreen@gmail.com
The Office of Capital Projects said UNM has seven construction projects underway on main campus, all set to be completed in October. Will Turner, director of the Office of Capital Projects, said there are 23 construction projects have been approved on main campus. “There’s more work out there to be done than we can ever finish,” he said. “We’re actually in a time frame where our workload is smaller than it has been in quite a while because of the economy.” In addition to the seven projects that are under construction, seven others are in the final “closeout” phase, Turner said. With the exception the Castetter Hall addition, Turner said the current projects will be finished by October. Castetter Hall, on the other hand, will be completed in April 2011. The greenhouses that were previously on the ground near Castetter were moved to the hall’s roof. The building is being designed to support more biology research, and costs $9.9 million. The Science and Math building, projected at about $21.6 million, is going to be geared toward freshmen classes and focus on introductory math, biology, chemistry and earth and planetary sciences. It will have an auditorium and computer labs, according to OCP’s status report, and construction is set to finish Oct. 26. On all UNM campuses, including the branches, there are 85 proposed projects, with 20 in construction. Turner said the cost for the
Emma Difani / Daily Lobo A construction worker stands from a beam as part of the phase-two addition to Castetter Hall. The new biology wing is one of several new projects on main campus. work on main campus is $90 million, and for all campuses the total is $339.7 million, which includes the predicted costs of projects still in the planning phase. Turner said the state covers about 25 percent of all costs, and the University, individual donors and research grants pay for additional costs. “A lot of what drives construction at UNM is research directed,” Turner said. “We are doing renovation of Logan Hall right now, and that’s based on the need to produce specific research
space that has been funded by the NIH.” Jake Morgan waits for the South Lot bus every day, and he said the University’s resources could be better spent elsewhere. “I wonder why they’re putting so much money into buildings instead of education,” he said. Turner said people don’t generally have problems with the work, because OCP tries to work around people’s schedules. “There are occasions when our activities do
impact people and we try to coordinate that,” Turner said. “(Power and water) shutdowns — we try to do that in time frames so it doesn’t affect anybody.”
DL
COMMENTS? VISIT US ON OUR WEB SITE
WWW.DAILYLOBO.COM
UNMPD: Former teammate suspected in burglary by Shaun Griswold shaun24@unm.edu
Julian Blair, a former defensive back on the UNM football team was involved in the Aug. 25 robbery of teammate Brandon Lewis, according to UNMPD officials. Detective Chris Crespin, the lead investigator in the case, confirmed that Blair is
a suspect in the robbery of $1,800 worth of electronics from Lewis’ room. Blair was not named in the Aug. 25 police report, but was dismissed from the team during preseason for an unspecified violation of team rules, an Athletics spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Crespin said UNMPD has not ruled out defensive back Ravonne Carter as an additional suspect because “the investigation is
still under review.” According to an Aug. 25 police report, Carter told a teammate that he intended to steal from Lewis’ room the same night. Lewis told police someone broke into his SRC apartment with a silver knife and stole a laptop and an Xbox 360. The items were found stashed in separate outdoor locations, Crespin said. He said the laptop was found underneath Lewis’ car and the
Xbox was found in a nearby bush. Following procedure, Crespin said he will refer the case to the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office when he wraps up the investigation. UNMPD is still waiting on results from a fingerprint test on the silver knife, but Crespin said he could not give a date about when the results of the test will arrive.
other was to open up spots so that we could really compete for some of the best young faculty available.” Sociology professor Richard Coughlin drafted the proposal in October 2009. According to the proposal, the most important factor influencing savings to the University is the proportion of eligible faculty who retire as a result of the incentive. “Each tenured faculty member who moves up retirement by one year saves the University, on average, approximately $100,000 in the first year and $200,000 to $300,000 over three years,” Coughlin said. Richard Holder, deputy provost for Academic Affairs, said deans thought Coughlin’s plan would cost the University more money than it saved in the short term.
“The deans just really didn’t feel like was an economically sound and viable proposition for the University,” Holder said. Coughlin said nationwide reports show tenured faculty members are choosing to work beyond the average retirement age, resulting in “graying” faculty. He said UNM is no exception. “As many as 300 assistant professor positions could be opened over three years by an effective retirement incentive program,” he said. Increased retirements will allow renewal of the faculty through the recruitment of high-quality junior faculty and would facilitate the University’s goal of diversifying tenure track faculty in terms of gender, race and ethnicity.
Wood said the college deans said the plan was too risky because money could be lost if not enough faculty members opted to retire. Holder said the University has systems in place where the University can buy out tenure faculty members who agree to retire. He said faculty members must be eligible for retirement to qualify, and each college sets its price for the tenure buyout. “A faculty member’s tenure is pretty much a lifetime guarantee to work at UNM and have free speech at the University, barring any felonies or misconduct, of course,” he said. “Basically, we give them a check, and they give us their tenure,” he said. Provost Suzanne Ortega said the University is not considering any other buyout plans.
Deans: Retirement buyout not financially sound by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
A proposed buyout plan encouraging older UNM faculty to retire was recently ended because of questions about its financial viability. Faculty Senate President Richard Wood headed a task force on retirement incentives that proposed in February for UNM to offer potential retirees an annuity equal to one year’s salary so as to allow UNM to hire promising young professors. “We really had two goals with it,” Wood said. “One was to make it possible for senior faculty members who were ready to retire to retire earlier than planned, and the
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 115
issue 19
Bearly there
Caught Reading
See page 5
See page 2
TODAY
91 | 64