President David Schmidly said he would like to see UNM's ethnic centers get recurring, "hard money" funding from the state each year.
Universities across the state have been struggling to develop a backup plan to support their "soft money" student services - those that have to lobby for funding each year - in case the Legislative Finance Committee's proposed budget cuts are approved by the Legislature.
The committee's proposals threaten to impact all special programs at state institutions. The cuts proposed for UNM could eliminate state funding for the law school's library and the free bus pass program. These, along with other cuts, would shave more than $1 million from the roughly $230 million UNM usually receives in state appropriations.
However, it's the proposed cuts to the University's ethnic programs - which stand to lose anywhere from 33 percent to all of their funding - that have caused a stir among students.
Schmidly said he is concerned about how the cuts will affect the University's ethnic programs and will fight to protect them.
"One of the things that I'm very worried about is the loss of our special-project funding to our ethnic centers," Schmidly said. "They support some of our students that come to the University with perhaps a little more academic risk, and the support services provided by those ethnic centers has made a real difference in the success of those students. So, I want to make sure that we begin to protect those centers that provide that kind of support to our underrepresented-student population."
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Darrell Pehr, spokesman for New Mexico State University, said the university's president, Waded Cruzado, plans to take money from NMSU's reserves to
support the programs that are slated to have their funding cut.
"The thinking is that we have some reserves and we're going to do some belt-tightening," Pehr said. "There has been pretty much a feeling that we're not going to cut any programs for people. That's the hope and the thought, and so with anything that comes down the line, we'll just try to tighten up elsewhere and make more of an across-the-board approach."
Katharine Winograd, president of the Central New Mexico Community College, said that she is in the process of conducting an extensive internal budget reduction process that will include all of CNM's faculty and staff.
Although CNM does not have special programs that the Legislative Finance Committee can cut funding from, it is projected to lose about $5.5 million from instruction and general funds - almost the same amount that UNM is projected to lose from its I&G appropriations.
"Five million dollars is a lot of money, so it will impact a lot of things," Winograd said. "I don't have the answer yet for what it will impact, but what we're planning on doing is looking at what's coming to us and ideas from the institution, and then we'll make the decision on how to make those cuts."
Winograd said CNM mimicked the actions of UNM and put a pause on hiring faculty and staff in order to prepare for state budget cuts.
"We are looking at reduction of administrative layers and staffing, but we're not going to (balance the budget) by laying off anyone," Winograd said. "We're going to do that as people retire or resign. We're looking at all equipment purchases, and we're looking at all operating costs. We're trying to figure out how we can improve processes so that we can reduce what we spend. There are lots and lots of ideas, but we really haven't made any decisions yet."
Susan McKinsey, spokeswoman for UNM, said in a statement that Schmidly might consider bringing the budgets for the ethnic centers under the umbrella of the University's I&G funds.
"We will be working hard in
Santa Fe to get those proposed cuts reduced or eliminated," McKinsey said.ˇ"It is still very early in the process, and if all of us pull together and present a unified front in Santa Fe, ourˇability to achieve these goals will be significantly improved. Of course, the ultimate goal would be to see that these centers could be brought under the I&G budget of the University and no longer have to face the uncertainties of special-project funding."
Schmidly said lobbying for the ethnic centers will receive his utmost attention. The strength of UNM is based on the diversity of its student body, he said.
"It is well-documented that our ethnic centers have played a big role in helping our underrepresented-student population succeed at the University," Schmidly said. "So, why would I want to harm? I mean . I want to do everything I can to get their funding to the level where it's not only restored, but I'd like to get them off the special-project, year-to-year funding to where there is some consistency and reassurance, and I want to do that as soon as I can."
