On Monday, April 22, the University of New Mexico Board of Regents will decide what to do about the University’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, after rescheduling the vote twice before.
The first budget summit was rescheduled to be congruent with the previously scheduled April 9 regents meeting. The second summit had to grapple with a last-minute letter from the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
The letter clarified Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s call for a four percent increase in compensation to all employees at “public postsecondary institutions,” including colleges and universities. The letter was dated for last Monday, a day before UNM was set to hold the Budget Summit.
The regents did pass budgets for the UNM branch campuses last week. Their sources of funding, which differ from that of Main Campus, allowed them to absorb the four percent increase without making changes to their proposed budgets, according to Interim Provost Richard Wood.
Before the letter was received, the Budget Leadership Team proposed increasing upper division premiums, which are additional costs for upper level and graduate courses. The BLT also proposed a Technology Fee, which would fund Information Technologies. IT was previously funded by student fees. There is also a mandatory student fee increase.
The meeting will take place at 9 a.m. in the Student Union Building Ballroom C, followed by a closed executive session that will begin immediately afterward.
Anna Evanitz, Danielle Prokop and Madison Spratto contributed to the reporting of this article.
Justin Garcia is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted by email at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Just516garc.
Kyle Land is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted by email at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @kyleoftheland.
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