UNM has decided to create a new Physics & Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Science center, despite the University facing a projected $1 billion in debt.
Construction of the state-of-the-art facility, which will be located west of Popejoy Hall, is expected to begin in fall of 2017. It will be a 137,000 square feet facility and is anticipated to cost $66 million, according to College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Peceny, with $27 million allotted to the project through General Obligation Bond C.
For Peceny and Ronald Rosa, a junior computer science major, the project is well worth the price tag.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Rosa said. “I consistently do work at the P&A building, and I feel bad that such great topics of study have one of the worst buildings on campus.”
Peceny emphasized that Bond C will not increase taxes, but would provide a large number of jobs in the state.
“Whenever the University takes on new debt, we should always ask what will be the return on this investment,” he said. “We are confident that this new facility will bring a tremendous return on our investment for students, faculty and staff at UNM and for the state.”
Rosa said he has noticed disordered, aging and almost entirely malfunctioning wiring while working on the networks in the aging building.
Despite enjoying the machines, he said he does not like the age or the layout of the current Physics & Astronomy building, and described the facilities as “outdated.”
While temporary office additions were constructed roughly 20 years ago, some of the main parts of the existing P&A building are over 60 years old, Peceny said.
“The building is deteriorating,” he said. “We have frequent interruptions of our operations due to power outages, leaks, failure of the air conditioning and problems with asbestos tiles and insulation.”
Although the research-intensive P&A department wins $4 to $7 million annually in competitive research grants, it is still lacking state-of-the-art laboratories for its “cutting-edge experimental research,” Peceny said.
The building’s classrooms cannot successfully implement modern teaching techniques, while the classrooms and research laboratories also create difficulty in recruitment and retention of top students and faculty, he said.
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Bond C projects extend statewide and will allow institutions throughout New Mexico to provide better service to their students, Peceny said.
Rosa feels it was a wise choice for the University, and the state, to update their facilities for higher learning capabilities.
When the new building is constructed, Rosa said students like himself would have a more centralized learning environment to ask questions to various experts of different fields, as well as more advanced labs to take part in more sophisticated research and learn to practice at more precise levels.
With construction expected to be completed by March 2019, Peceny said the center will offer offices, classrooms and laboratories utilized for both research and instruction for the P&A Department, as well as various interdisciplinary College of Arts and Sciences programs.
The new building will include P&A centers that help study the effects of local environmental changes on plants and animals, as well as human civilization over time, he said, while other University faculty with physical, natural and social science disciplines will be able to collaborate on this and other research.
Peceny said a center for stable isotopes, a radiocarbon center, a spatial data analysis center, a center for the study of humans and primates, a bioinformatics and genomics center and a center for electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction will also be added at the new PAIS facility.
Peceny is grateful to both graduate and undergraduate student governments at UNM for their support in realizing the new building, he said.
“UNM has been in dire need of new facilities,” Rosa said. “Our research and science resources are all dedicated to the hospital. I would love to see even more STEM opportunities come to UNM. If UNM updates all its facilities to a higher standard, I believe we can become a place for advanced learning and become a more reputable university.”
Peceny said he believes the new PAIS building is a “step to secure our future.”
Despite difficult times, he said, the University still has to ensure the next generation of STEM students can receive the education and training they need to succeed.
To learn more about the new PAIS facility, visit: http://news.unm.edu/news/new-facility-will-help-unm-researchers-and-students-change-the-world.
Elizabeth Sanchez is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Beth_A_Sanchez.
