Notes from the Sept. 27, 2005 Regents Meeting
by George Zamora
SOCORRO, N.M., Sept, 28, 2005 – The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents was informed at its monthly meeting that this fall semester’s student enrollment at the state-supported research university is showing a more than three percent increase over last year’s record enrollment figure of 1,852 undergraduates and graduate students.
New Mexico Tech President Daniel H. López also told the university’s governing board at its September 27 meeting that even though enrollment continues to increase each year, it is doing so “at a manageable rate.”
With this academic year’s increase to a total headcount of 1,917 students, student enrollment at New Mexico Tech has now experienced modest growth for four consecutive years, López said.
This fall semester’s slight increase can once again be largely attributed to the number of graduate students taking courses at the university, which also has continued to rise by about five percent each year in recent years, the Tech President added.
In other matters considered at the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents meeting, regents attending approved the following measures:
- an annual resolution to comply with the New Mexico Open Meetings Act;
- an annual resolution excluding members of the Board of Regents from authority to obtain details or view classified documents concerning any high-security contracts the university’s various research divisions may have entered into;
- a resolution supporting the selection of artists residing in New Mexico when considering commissions of public art works to be placed within the university campus;
- revisions to the New Mexico Tech Property Manual and Regents Asset Capitalization Policy to reflect previously approved changes made to thresholds for equipment purchases;
- a four-year contract to Chartwells University & College Dining Services to provide the university with on-campus dining and catering services;
- a contract to provide catering services to New Mexico Tech’s Playas Research and Training Center in Playas, N.M.; and
- a Budget Revision Request for the university’s current operating budget.
In addition, the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents also was notified during its regular monthly meeting that two recent expenditures of more than $100,000 were made by the university with restricted funds, including:
- $737,037 for materials to construct a 40-foot dome for a telescope enclosure at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory and a
- $231,800 subcontract issued to Wagner Rents on behalf of Tech’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center for its Structural Testing Project.
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SOCORRO, N.M., Sept. 30, 2005 – The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents, meeting in an emergency telephone conference this morning, has approved a contract for repair work to commence on a portion of the university’s hot-water loop system.
The hot-water conveyance system, which consists of a campus-wide grid of large water pipes circulating hot water to various campus buildings, is more than 25 years old and has begun experiencing a series of breaks along its critical junctures.
While the newly approved contract doesn’t apply to repair work on the entire system, it does specify that repair work begin immediately on the section of the hot-water loop that services the research university’s residence halls.
“Under no circumstances should we allow our students who reside on campus to be without heat or hot water this coming winter,” New Mexico Tech President Daniel H. López told the regents during their telephonic meeting.
The hot-water loop repair contract, which stipulates that the total cost for the project not exceed $500,000, was awarded to Facility Build, Inc., a contractor that is currently working across campus on another construction project at New Mexico Tech.