Julie Weaks, UNM's vice president for business and finance, said that she is "at the end of her rope" with the Student Union Building construction and is seeking legal ways to compensate for its construction delays.
"This is not acceptable and I want to take whatever action is possible," she said.
Weaks' heated comments were among many as University officials discussed the major problems with the SUB project Monday during the Board of Regents' Finance and Facilities meeting.
The SUB's construction date has been pushed back several times since the $25 million project's starting point in 2001. Originally scheduled to be completed in August 2002, officials say they cannot put a definite date on its completion.
"I think the misleading thing is to say a certain date," said Walt Miller, director of the SUB.
Miller, who during the summer said that he would be able to give a definite date by the beginning of the school year, said that he still cannot give a completion date, but indicated that the construction would be finished sometime during the spring semester.
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Roger Lujan, director of facility planning, said that to date, the SUB is only 80 percent complete, when it should be more than 90 percent finished. Earlier during the semester, Lujan said that the general contract with Silver Construction Company was 2.3 months behind schedule and each additional month in delays will cost the company $40,000.
The delays were attributed to uncooperative substitution workers. Weaks, however, was outraged that while she was touring the SUB earlier, she noticed that not much was going on at the time.
"We're behind schedule and people need to be working like crazy on this and they are not," Weaks said.
Regent Larry Willard, the board's president, said that what worries him is that the SUB was not a complicated project and didn't understand how it could get to this point.
Lujan did say, however, that even though the building would not be completed until later in the academic year, it is planned to phase into the new SUB next semester starting with moving offices onto the first level.
Student Regent Eric Anaya expressed concern that students walking into the building for the first time would be put off by construction going on around them, but Lujan assured him that the "messier and noisier things will not be going on" where people would be.
Regent Richard Toliver said in light of the SUB situation, the University needs to consider using other analytical tools and sources outside UNM to evaluate possible project difficulties. He suggested that those who specialize in "analysis of uncertainties" would be of help.
He said that he does appreciate Lujan's and others' work on the project, but something just isn't working - which affects everyone.
"We're all victims of a system that's broken and we need to find a way to fix it," he said.
