Construction of UNM's Rio Rancho campus began more than a week ago, and officials say work will proceed despite the recent revelation that state law requires off-campus facilities to be authorized by the Legislature.
The University is backing House Bill 354, which asks the Legislature to authorize construction of the campus, an expansion of the existing West Side campus.
However, at its meeting last week, UNM faculty voiced disapproval of the Rio Rancho project in light of the financial situation on Main Campus.
Marc Nigliazzo, vice president for Rio Rancho operations, said the House passed the bill Saturday and that it will go before the Senate this week for approval.
The bill answers a state statute that says any off-campus University or college facility built after 1998 needs to be reviewed by the Higher Education Department and approved by the Legislature before construction, Nigliazzo said.
But he said the statute shouldn't stop the construction of the first building, which is projected to cost more than $10 million.
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"The building could be built, but the only thing is that we wouldn't be qualified for state formula funds for utilities if the bill is not approved by the Legislature," he said.
Reed Dasenbrock, secretary of higher education, said he was uncertain whether the statute applied to the facility.
"I think there is some genuine ambiguity as to whether Rio Rancho represents a new campus . and this certainly depends on what you consider a campus to be," he said.
Dasenbrock said an off-campus facility is classified as one that has separate financial operations from its main campus.
"UNM's efforts in Rio Rancho are presently financially part of the main campus," he said. "In other words, there's not separate faculty - not a separate college."
The development is taking place 45 minutes from Main Campus, on 300 acres off of Paseo del Volcan and Unser Boulevard in Rio Rancho. The two-story building will have one computer lab, eight classrooms, two lecture halls, seminar rooms and student study areas. It is scheduled to open in January.
Zachary Sharp, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the University should not be building in Rio Rancho at this time.
"In these hard financial times, when money is so limited at UNM, it's hard to understand why we would need a Rio Rancho campus," he said. "We have been told that there is not going to be funds diverted from UNM to the Rio Rancho campus, but at the same time, the state Roundhouse is talking about limited funds to the University of New Mexico system. And it just seems like this is the worst time to start to build a new campus."
Nigliazzo said he doubts many Rio Rancho students would go to UNM if there were no West Side campus.
"My feeling is that a number of these students would not be able to take these courses if they had to go to Main Campus, because many of them are working. Some of them obviously have families on the West Side, and this has really become an opportunity for them to pick up course work and continue to do that toward a degree," he said.
Nigliazzo said the building will be staffed by eight professors, including himself, and one adviser. He said this staff already works at the West Side campus.
Nigliazzo said the Rio Rancho branch knows about the University's financial problems and is trying to keep them in mind while getting this facility off the ground.
Part of the building and the infrastructure is paid for by the Higher Education Initiative, which created a 0.025 percent gross receipts tax hike in Rio Rancho. The bond was approved in March 2008.
The Rio Rancho area is expected to surpass 100,000 residents in the next five years, Nigliazzo said. The city wanted to prepare for that volume with a UNM campus, he said.
"The real driving force behind this is really the West Side communities and Rio Rancho primarily," he said. "Rio Rancho continues to grow in spite of the bad economy. They believe that they really should have at least access to UNM on the West Side."
Enrollment at UNM's West Side campus is about 1,500, he said.
