Departments and offices across campus will have to give up a total of $1 million for the University's emergency savings fund.
The University will add the money to the $5.3 million in the central reserve fund, said Andrew Cullen, associate vice president for institutional planning.
"Well, we didn't really have a couple of months of living expenses in our checking account," he said. "We had maybe a month, and that's just not wise. You need to have some sort of a central reserve to go ahead and handle extraordinary kinds of conditions that are out of your control, so that you can rely on those dollars to kind of weather the storm."
UNM pulls money for the fund from departments and offices that are operating in the black, Cullen said.
He said about 25 percent of growth in balances within the Instructional and General (I&G) funds are taken for the central reserve fund.
The I&G funds are provided by the state and cover many of the core operations and academic departments on campus, Cullen said.
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"So, let's say you were the chairperson of a department and two years ago you ended the year with a $100 positive balance, and the following year, you ended with a $200 positive balance," he said. "What we've done is we have taken up to 25 percent of that additional $100 that your balance grew. We won't touch the original $100. We only look at the growth that you had in that fiscal year."
Departments scheduled to contribute to the fund this year include the offices of the President, Provost, Institutional Advancement and Student Affairs.
The highest amount being taken for the fund is $180,000 from Human Resources, and Risk Management Services will give up $130,000 to the fund.
Donna Smith, director of Risk Management Services, said in an e-mail that she isn't sure how losing the money will impact her department.
"We did have funds harvested, and the effect of that loss will not be evident until the end of the fiscal year," she said. "The determination is dependent on several factors, one being the number of lossesˇcovered by insuranceˇat UNM. Safety is the best motto in any economic environment."
Tracy Skipp, University College associate dean, said most departments are operating with the bare minimum. University College had about $18,000 taken from its budget for the central reserve fund.
"I think everyone is affected somehow, just because most of us operate right at our capacity anyway," she said. "But we are making adjustments, and I'm sure we will be able to make it through just fine because everyone is having to contribute."
Skipp said she adjusted the budget by modernizing her department, making campus guides available electronically instead of on paper.
"We are trying to be as responsible as possible with the funds that we have," she said.
Cullen said the money in the reserve fund might be used to cover budget shortages caused by funding cuts from the Legislature.
Cullen said UNM will likely see a decrease in state funding.
"I think the only real question is, is it going to be for this fiscal year? So, halfway through the fiscal year . or are they going to be able to wait until the next fiscal year?" he said.
The Higher Education Department and the state Finance and Administration Department recommend the University hold between 3 and 5 percent of I&G funds - about $8 million - in a reserve, Cullen said.
"In the last two preceding years, we were pulling back some of these dollars that were out in all of these departments - administrative departments and academic departments alike ... so that we had a little bit more of a balance in that central administrative reserve to handle extraordinary economic circumstances, some of those that we are going through right now," he said.
