The New Mexico State University Board of Regents reviewed budget cuts today presented by Chancellor Dr. Garrey Carruthers.
NMSU is making more than $12 million dollars in cuts following reductions in state funding, a refusal by the Board of Regents to increase tuition, and declines in enrollment.
The University will eliminate 37 jobs…and 89 open positions. Chancellor Dr. Garrey Carruthers said some may be transferred to other appropriate positions. Of the 37…three are faculty and 34 are staff members.
NMSU Regents Chair Debra Hicks says the cuts are difficult but necessary.
“We think that we’re on the right track because we know we will continue to lose our state funding because the budget will continue to go down in the next couple of years,” Hicks said. “Not to say, 4 years later, it’s not going to go back up, but for now this is where we need to be, and we are looking at streamlining our programs, making sure our programs align with our mission, align with the number of faculty, staff, students, employees that we need.”
The cuts also include the elimination of the health center for employees and previously approved employee benefit cuts. NMSU Employee Mike Hoskins says the benefit cuts could make it harder to recruit.
“The new benefits that they’re offering,” Hoskins said. “And the salary that is a little bit less than what the private industry would offer. It makes it much less competitive for someone like myself, or even a lot of the faculty members to come in and have that negatively affect the mission of the university because of the benefit cuts they pushed through and approved last week.”
Dr. Carruthers says there was a lot of discussion and communication about what cuts needed to be made.
‘The recommendation on the 7% cut all came from the colleges,” Carruthers said. “And the units that were involved. So, we didn’t sit around and think these up. We asked our community to say if you had to cut 7% what would you cut, and how would you prioritize those cuts. So, we’re working off of what the community suggested, knowing that we had to do some cuts. This is how best we could do it to accommodate this financial situation.”
Faculty Senate Chair Christopher Brown asked the regents to reconsider a tuition increase.
“Without the tuition increase that we requested,” Brown said. “We have this budget shortfall. The University has to make these incredibly difficult decisions about where to cut. Open faculty lines are seed coin. That’s the future of the institution. Open staff lines are the seed coin of the institution, so that’s very, very concerning.”
NMSU will also eliminate its equestrian team, but all scholarships will be honored. Team members can also transfer to another school without penalty, but Sophomore Kaitlin Nelson says it’s too late to find another program this year.
“We really aren’t going to be able to seek another program this year,” Nelson said. “The signing period has ended. We have about 30 days until the school year starts, and all of the other recruitment spots for the other teams have been filled, their scholarships have been doled out. We don’t have a chance, we did not have any time to prepare, to make other arrangements. It’s dropping the ball at the last minute, and we have no time to figure anything out, and for some of us this is the reason we’re here.”
The Engineering Surveying program will also be evaluated for elimination. The issue will be presented to the Faculty Senate this fall.
Dr. Carruthers noted enrollment issues are due in part to a smaller pool of students. He said that New Mexico’s high school graduation rate declined last year to 68.6 percent. But he added there are also simply fewer teens in the state...since 2010, more than 7.6 percent fewer between the ages of 15 and 19.
And the challenges are likely not over for the University or others who depend on state funding. With a cut in the corporate tax rate and reductions in oil and gas revenue…Carruthers noted the state coffers were down by ten percent in April compared to the same time last year.
