UNM must give specifics about Rio Rancho campus

Administrators fail to answer questions about the underutilized UNM West

Golden opportunity missed? Perhaps. University of New Mexico President Bob Frank had the attention of Rio Rancho officials and members of the community at his town hall Monday to hear his vision for the future of UNM West campus. About 80 people attended — a good showing.

But many in attendance felt Frank’s presentation was long on big picture rhetoric and short on details.

And that was noted by three city councilors who are entertaining the idea of asking voters to take away half of a quarter cent gross receipts education tax they approved for the campus in 2008 and repurposing it for public safety and other needs.

“All I heard was ‘we’re working on it,’” Councilor Lonnie Clayton said.

Councilor Chuck Wilkins, the driving force behind the effort to ask voters to shift half the education tax revenues, said “I thought we’d hear why (UNM) needs the quarter cent. I didn’t hear that and I haven’t changed my mind.”

After the meeting Councilor Mark Scott told the Journal, “I wanted to hear a plan about what they would do with $2 million annually of taxpayer money. There was no plan, no timetable. Their answer was ‘some day maybe we’ll do something.’ Where’s the plan?”

Frank and an associate dean of the UNM School of Law pitched the idea of UNM West becoming a laboratory for innovation focusing on training students for jobs in health care and technology, increasing enrollment — UNM West is vastly underutilized with only about 600 students — and expanding courses and degree programs. Some of those ideas were pitched by former UNM President David Schmidly when the campus was proposed.

The campus opened in 2010, offering junior, senior and graduate-level classes. An agreement with Central New Mexico Community College, allows students to take lower level classes at a nearby branch. Frank has said UNM now wants to offer some lower level classes at UNM West and add more degree programs.

The education tax brings in about $2 million and Frank said losing half of it would be devastating. But now is the time to be clear about how that money is to be used going forward and offer specifics about how losing it would affect UNM West. The tax, which has a 20-year lifetime, brings in more than is needed to pay off the building, and that obligation ends in 2015.

Granted, something as significant as changing the campus mission can’t be done overnight, but if some degree of alacrity isn’t applied, other forces are poised to intervene. Wilkins says he will ask for an item to be placed on the May 22 council agenda calling for a special election on the tax shift.

UNM has had four years to refine its vision for UNM West, and given its low enrollment and nearly vacant halls and classrooms, it’s time for UNM to present specific plans and goals for public discussion.

Time is of the essence.