It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but the former Alpha Chi Omega house is set to become the new home of all three ROTC programs at the University of New Mexico.
At least $8 million will go toward the renovation, including $1 million in capital outlay from State Senate Minority Whip Bill Payne (R-Albuquerque) and $7 million from a 2018 GO bond.
“To get an ROTC scholarship is as competitive as going to one of the service academies, in fact it’s probably more competitive because a lot of kids don't want to go to Annapolis. They'd rather go to a university,” Payne told the Daily Lobo.
It’s unclear if the $8 million will be enough to fully renovate the vacant sorority.
“We’re still short,” UNM lobbyist Joe Thomspon said. “But not real short.”
Neither Thompson nor Payne said they knew how much more the project might require. The project is currently operating with a budget of $6.8 million, according to University Architect Amy Coburn.
UNM lobbyist Matt Munoz did not respond to comment.
UNM’s three ROTC programs are scattered across the main campus over six buildings. The program’s purpose is to train military officers for active service after college.
“We’ve had Lobos serving in World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam and even into the current conflicts,” said Joe McKinney, retired university planner emeritus told the UNM Newsroom in 2017. “The University has been a military friendly school for quite some time.”
For Army ROTC, the new space is a welcome change.
Army ROTC moved out of their building on Lomas into temporary facilities, according to Erik Sevigny, the Army ROTC's senior enrollment officer at UNM. In 2018, Sevigny told KOB that renovating Army ROTC’s old facility would be equivalent to putting “lipstick on a pig.”
Navy ROTC declined to comment on the new facility.
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Justin Garcia is the Editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @just516garc
