The Nov. 4 election holds not only the promise of a new U.S. president but also the possibility of funding for UNM.
Three general obligation bonds are up for a vote: Bond B will fund public libraries; Bond C will fund UNM's Health Sciences Center; and Bond D is for higher education facilities. All three bonds will affect UNM students and community members, said Susan McKinsey, University spokeswoman.
While Bond B would give money to public libraries all over New Mexico, Dean of University Libraries Martha Bedard said the funding is crucial to keep campus libraries updated.
"The funds can only be used for acquisitions - materials suchˇas journals, books, CDs and DVDs,ˇprint or electronic, she said.
Bond funding is normally used to maintain subscriptions to electronic journals and e-books, Bedard said.
"If the bond does not pass, we would have to cancel subscriptions, unless another source of funds can be found," she said.
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If the bond passes, UNM libraries will get $780,000 to update materials. CNM will receive $450,814, and libraries in Bernalillo County will receive $2,785,338.
Bond C would fund building, developing and daily operations for the Cancer Research Center, Neurological Research Building and the Dental Residency Education Facilities.
Cheryl Willman, director of the Cancer Research Center, said the bond's passage is critical for New Mexicans to get quality care.
"We are seeing 375 to 400 patients a day in a building that was built for 100 patients," she said.
The UNM Cancer Research Center is set to receive $17,000,000, which would go toward adding space for patients and updating the center's equipment, Willman said.
Willman said there is also a problem with oral health in New Mexico and that the bond would give $7,000,000 to fund a dental residency education program, aimed at bringing dental students to UNM.
"The hope is to bring back students who went out of New Mexico for their dental residency and bring in students from other places," she said.
The UNM Neurological Research Building would receive $4,500,000 to expand and allow programs in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, neurosciences and pharmacy to operate in the same center, at UNM.
The passage of Bond D would pay for improvement and renovation projects for colleges all over the state, according to President David Schmidly.
Bond D provides a total of $139,900,000, and UNM would receive $17,000,000, according the G.O. Bond Education Committee. New Mexico State University is set to receive $21,400,000, and CNM would get $12,000,000.
Bond D would help fund new projects at UNM, such as the Film and Digital Media Building at Mesa del Sol. Five million dollars of the bond money would go toward expanding the biology building and adding new laboratories, Schmidly said.
The UNM Student Success Center would get $2,000,000 from Bond D, Schmidly said.
