Two weeks after UNM's new fiscal year began, the Board of Regents approved final details of the University's budget.
The figures were stuck in legislative limbo until a special session was called this summer to settle a statewide budget standoff. The final tally left UNM with $1.3 billion to spend this school year - a 6.6 percent increase over the 2001-02 budget.
The budget, which covering operating costs for the main campus; Health Sciences Center and University Hospital; the Gallup, Valencia and Los Alamos branch campuses; and the Taos Education Center, was approved by the Commission on Higher Education in June.
UNM Budget Director Curtis Porter told the regents Aug. 13 that the state decreased the University's appropriation by 0.1 percent this year, prompting UNM's seventh tuition increase in as many years.
The regents previously increased undergraduate resident tuition by 4.7 percent, or $131, which means a student pays $3,157 annually. Resident graduate student tuition was raised by 4.3 percent, or $144, making bills $3,485 per year. Out-of-state students' tuition was not increased to keep UNM a competitive bargain compared to other regional public universities.
Porter said the University's largest source of revenue generally comes from bond issues or state funding. He said while the Legislature appropriates about $242 million, the University generates more than $1 billion to cover its costs. About one-third of that money is spent on the main campus.
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Porter said that $72 million will be spent on major construction projects this school year and noted that this is the fourth year the University's budget exceeded $1 billion.
During the same meeting, the regents were updated on one of the University's newest fund-raising efforts - gathering planned gifts, which include bequests in wills, for the Lobo Legacy program.
Hazel Tull-Leach, director of Planned Giving for Lobo Athletics, outlined the progress of the program, which finished its first year.
The program uses the planned donations to fund Lobo athletic scholarships for lower profile sports programs and provides computers and books for student athletes in need of assistance.
She said the program was secured 18 planned donations in its first year, totaling $1.4 million. Tull-Leach added that $750,000 of the money was used to buy student athletes laptops to take on the road, paid for nine personal computers for Johnson Center and funded men's and women's tennis scholarships.
Tull-Leach said that football and basketball are the only UNM sports that make a profit, while leaders of all other University sports have been forced to fund-raise to keep the programs alive.
