DAILY LOBO new mexico
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October 29, 2010
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Economic picture bleak for photo dept DE
S P E R ATE
ti m e s by Sean P. Wynne seanpw@unm.edu
It’s not exactly a picturesque outlook for the UNM photography program. Professor James Stone said in an e-mail that the campus-wide funding shortage is forcing the Department of Art and Art History to make tough economic decisions. He said that the department is canceling four highdemand undergraduate classes and scaling back two graduate jobs to meet budgetary concerns. “Since we have a prominent graduate program in photography, one of the most highly ranked programs of any sort at UNM, we will be suffering as a result,” he said. “Unfortunately, if we can’t support the graduate students while they are here, we will necessarily see a decline in enrollment.” Professor Patrick Manning said long-term budget cuts could hurt UNM’s ability to compete with other universities’ photography programs. “This year, a number of our grad students are going to have to struggle for financial funding to complete their MFA,” he said. Already, the art department slashed faculty travel funds and has difficulty finding money to update computer hardware and software, Stone said. To make matters worse, Manning said, the department is bracing for an 8.2 percent cut in the fall. Student Gabriel Alarid said everyone is affected by the cuts, including undergraduates. “I think it’s a huge bummer. It makes it harder for us undergraduates to sign up for classes, so it drags us out an extra year,” he said. “I hope that they can find some money somewhere because I think it’s a good program, and the quality of students that come out of it is really high.” Student Nick Miller said UNM is neglecting its academic mission. “If there’s not as many positions open for grad students, maybe the program itself will lose quality because grad students who would come to UNM for the photography program now can’t,” he said. “So they will go somewhere else.”
If you know of a creative or effective cost-cutting measure in your department or elsewhere, please send an e-mail to News@DailyLobo.com to be featured in our “Desperate Times” feature.
Inside the
Dylan Smith/ Daily Lobo Bret Humbard looks at his print at the photo lab Tuesday. Budget constrains are forcing the Department of Art and Art History to eliminate four classes and scale back two TA positions.
Clipping branch campuses Ethnic centers to share space by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
New Mexico legislators are threatening to close some college campuses to try to reduce spending on higher education. The Legislative Finance Committee met Oct. 22 in Santa Fe to discuss how to cut down on higher education spending, but focused on concerns regarding funding the state’s 25-plus colleges. “We have way too many campuses, and campus branches, and branches of these branches, and we’re just not going to be able to continue funding these extensions,” said Sen. Carroll Leavell, a member of the committee. Leavell said the legislature passed a law in 1998 prohibiting the creation of community colleges or college campuses without legislative approval, but established colleges are still adding branches and extensions of existing campuses without consulting the legislature. He said this law needs to be revisited during the upcoming legislative session in order to make the interpretation more clear. “We can barely fund the campuses we have, much less more,” Leavell said. “Universities are expanding without asking us if we have the funds to support them, and then they complain that we’re not sufficiently funding them.” Although he said there is not currently a bill in the works to close branch campuses, Leavell said he
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Daily Lobo volume 115
issue 48
See page 5
has heard “mumblings” among lawmakers asking for branches with duplicate programs to be closed. “While I’m not in favor of the shutdowns, I think any campuses that do get shut down should not be reopened,” he said. “They were shut down for a reason, and we just can’t continue to support them.”
“We can barely fund the campuses we have, much less more” ~Sen. Carroll Leavell Not everyone agrees. Wynn Goering, vice provost for Academic Affairs, said that New Mexico is the nation’s fifth-largest state, but has one of the lowest, most spreadout populations, which makes state branch campuses necessary. “Having a physical college location in every corner of the state is very important for making higher education a real possibility for as many people as possible,” he said. Thirty-eight college campuses are spread throughout the state. Of those, 25 are public, state-funded campuses, according to UnivSource.com, which offers an index of all New Mexico public and private colleges, community colleges and universities. The high number of campuses
It’s almost here See page 9
is an area of concern, said Luciano “Lucky” Varela, the Legislative Finance committee chair. “This has been and will be a topic of discussion in upcoming meetings and the upcoming legislative session, especially because of the state’s major funding crisis right now,” Varela said. The committee’s website identifies four areas that account for 78 percent of New Mexico’s $6 billion budget, and one of those areas is higher education. The committee’s principal analyst Paul Aguilar said $792 million was appropriated for higher education expenses for the fiscal year which runs from July 2010June 2011. Aguilar said that a committee performance review conducted in August 2010 commended New Mexico for its fiscal support of higher education. It said that New Mexico is a national leader in committing tax efforts and spending toward higher education. “No other state dedicates more of its citizen’s personal income to higher education than New Mexico,” the review said. “Despite New Mexico’s limited wealth, state-supported appropriations resulted in the thirdhighest per student funding in the nation for (fiscal year 2008).” Aguilar said the state does spend enough on higher education. “For being a relatively poor state, New Mexico actually does spend much more money on its higher education institution than many other states already,” Aguilar said.
by Andrea Salazar asal19@unm.edu
Mesa Vista Hall renovations may force ethnic centers to start sharing resources. The building, home to the three ethnic centers, hasn’t been renovated since the 1980s, said Veronica Mendez-Cruz, El Centro de la Raza director. She said as part of the renovations, the building would have one centralized ethnic center instead of each having its own location. “I can tell you that I can look in any direction, standing anywhere on campus and find a capital project that needs to happen,” she said. “So you’re at a time where you’ve got your vice president’s support, you’ve got the provost’s support as well as the president, so I want to make it clear that it’s hard to get this level of attention, given the economic climate, and I hope you look at this as an opportunity.” Black Student Union President Patrick Barrett said merging
see Mesa Vista page 3
TODAY
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