DAILY LOBO new mexico
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September 12, 2013
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
‘Innovate ABQ’ proposal goes before regents Frank pressing for ‘concentrated research district’ in the city
by Chloe Henson
news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson5 UNM’s effort to centralize Albuquerque’s entrepreneurial startup scene finally goes to the Board of Regents. At a Board of Regents meeting Tuesday, UNM President Robert Frank talked about the project Innovate ABQ. According to the website of UNM’s Science and Technology Corporation, Innovate ABQ is a collaborative project between UNM, the city, the county, the state and local business communities. The venture will “create a research and innovation district near the University,” which will provide students with opportunities in jobs, internships, residential and cultural amenities related to science and mathematics, according to the site. Frank said New Mexico “has great science” and “entrepreneurial personality,” but Albuquerque has no single place for scientific minds to connect. “If you look through Albuquerque, we have no concentrated research district,” he said. “We have … a scattering of research districts across the city. And because we don’t have a true concentration it hurts us in building a real focus on it.” Frank said a proper research district contains a dense enough population that people can come into contact with each other enough to form new ideas. “Research districts create a true, mutually supportive relationship. And if there’s one word you think about with a research district, it’s the word ‘collision,’” he said. “And what we mean by ‘collision’ is a density of people so that people bump into each other with enough frequency that they make things happen.” Frank said this “distance of collision” for people is less than a mile. “The normal model of
Arsenii Morin / Daily Lobo Student Regent Heidi Overton listens during the Board of Regents meeting in the SUB on Tuesday. UNM President Robert Frank talked about the project Innovate ABQ during the meeting. Albuquerque, how we do things in New Mexico, doesn’t work very well,” he said. Frank said that last week, he visited SkySong, an innovation community started by ASU in Scottsdale, Ariz. “All of the investment in SkySong actually comes from Scottsdale and the investment that Scottsdale has made in SkySong is phenomenal,” he said. “It is $80 million that has been invested in SkySong by the town of Scottsdale.”
According to SkySong’s website, the innovation center is “a joint venture among ASU, the ASU Foundation, the city of Scottsdale and the Plaza Companies.” Frank said while a university usually initiates innovation centers, the centers usually belong to the community. “One of the things that’s critical about efforts that we’ve seen that are successful is they often start with the university, but they expand to be
owned by the community,” he said. “So the university sparks it, but it’s later owned by the community. So that’s a really critical phenomenon — driven by the university, owned by the community.” Frank said UNM will have to engage with communities across the state to execute the project. “We now believe we have to reach out to all of New Mexico,” he said. “Central New Mexico will not be enough, engaging, to start, the city of
Albuquerque, the county, and probably most of the state before we’re done.” Frank said UNM would also “create new companies, grow existing companies and, last but not least, attract companies to New Mexico.” Lisa Kuuttila, president and CEO of UNM’s Science and Technology Corporation, said a building at Mesa del Sol could be a potential
by Ardee Napolitano
budget units to perform,” he said. “Nobody really gets any new money because we don’t get any new money. You … never really look at people as budget managers who have to reconcile the activity of their unit to the demands of what students need.” Through the current model, departments get their expected amount of money budgeted to them by the University every year, Frank said. But Frank said ROM will allow the University to consider various factors in departments, such as the demand for academic majors they offer, when deciding how much money to provide them. He said the model will also provide faculty members more opportunities to participate in the decision-making process regarding budgets. “We wanted to make sure that
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Frank pushes new ‘dynamic’ budget model news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
The University continues to work on a new budget model this semester. UNM President Robert Frank said the administration is currently devising the Results Oriented Management (ROM) budget model to create a more “dynamic” way of allocating money to University departments. He said administrators been working on the model since the spring. Frank said UNM’s current “historic budget model” does not function efficiently because it “tends to be much more static.” He said the current model does not address departments’ real needs. “If you look at our budgeting process, a highly centralized budget, we haven’t really set targets for
UNM President Robert Frank discusses Results Oriented Management (ROM) in his Scholes Hall office on Aug. 23. ROM is the new budget process and allocation model being designed and implemented at UNM. Sergio Jiménez Daily Lobo
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