The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents met for its first meeting of 2017 on Thursday, February 2, in Santa Fe.
The Board heard from state leaders including State Senator John Arthur Smith, Chair of the State Finance Committee, who briefed the Regents members on the current economic outlook.
Lieutenant Governor John Sanchez detailed the efforts of the Governor’s office to balance the budget and applauded WNMU’s recent work to create relationships with education partners throughout Mexico and Latin America.
“The world is becoming smaller and one of the things that I have always appreciated about working with Latin America has been the idea that we have these shared values,” Sanchez said. “Western has really blazed the trail.”
David Abbey, Director of the Legislative Finance Committee, provided a recap of economic indicators over the last year including the current state of wages, jobs and revenues. Abbey spoke to increasing oil and gas revenues and a recent uptick in gross receipts tax revenues.
State Senator Howie Morales, representing Grant, Socorro and Catron counties, spoke to his concern on proposed cuts to state agencies including higher education.
“I know you took a big hit in the special session,” Morales said. “I want to focus in on Western’s approach thinking outside the box attracting students that are coming outside the country.”
Morales expressed his appreciation that WNMU was looking for other ways to create revenue outside of the state government. Morales is a member of the State Finance Committee and a WNMU alum.
“We can’t cut our way out this recession, we can’t tax our way out of it,” Morales said. “It has to be a balanced approach.”
Morales sponsored a bill to introduce Arlean Murillo as the new student regent member of the Board and also sponsored a memorial to declare WNMU as the public applied liberal arts university for the state.
“Western was known for it’s teacher college and this is another way for Western to find that niche. It’s a great way to go forward,” Morales said.
Marc Saavedra, Executive Director of the Council of University Presidents, presented the budget impact to higher education institutions in the state. He detailed the organization’s view of the Lottery Scholarship, which is funding less than 70% of full tuition rates.
“We suggest the higher education institutions work with the Secretary of Higher Education over the next year to put together a proposal for solvency,” Saavedra said.
The Lottery Scholarship is a legislatively created scholarship funded through the state’s lottery sales and designated to college students that graduated from a New Mexico high school.
Saavedra congratulated WNMU for having the largest percentage growth of bachelor degree graduates in the state over the last five years, and a large percentage growth in master degree graduates.
Barbara Damron, New Mexico Higher Education Secretary, commended WNMU for making strides to increase graduation rates and the University’s involvement in developing general education reforms.
The Board of Regents approved the state’s 2015-2016 fiscal audit report of WNMU. The report was determined as unmodified with fewer findings than reported in the previous year’s audit. No findings were considered major or significant.
The Board also approved a biennial review of the university’s Alcohol and Drug Prevention Program.