Notes from the Aug. 4, 2007 Regents Meeting

by George Zamora

CHAMA, N.M. — The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents has approved the school’s Five-Year Facilities Plan Priority List for 2008-2012, with top priority given to a $9.5 million request to upgrade, replace, and add-on to the state-supported research university’s campus infrastructure.

The priority list of on-campus capital projects also included requests for a new $20 million building to house the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (second on the priority list) and $12 million to construct a new physical recreation and wellness facility for the university (third on the priority list).

After garnering unanimous approval from the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents, the priority list, which includes four other proposed projects, will now be forwarded to the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) for its formal evaluation as capital projects the New Mexico State Legislature may possibly consider funding during next year’s legislative session.

Rounding off New Mexico Tech’s “wish list” are a $16 million facility to house the university’s chemistry and materials engineering departments (fourth on the list); $4 million for a federal research facility on campus (fifth); campus improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, totaling $2.5 million (sixth); and $15 million in additional funding for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory (seventh).

During the university governing board's August 4 meeting in Chama, N.M., the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents also approved a list of Research and Public Service Funding Requests and Priorities for Fiscal Year 2008-2009, totaling more than $3 million in possible state funding for upgrades and increases in existing projects at the university.

In other official actions considered at the board's monthly meeting, the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents also approved the following measures:

• a 2008-2009 Pro-forma Institutional Budget to be submitted to HED;
• a quarterly report on the university’s recently completed Fiscal Year 2006-2007 Institutional Budget to be submitted to HED; and
• a Fiscal Year 2007-2008 additional budget recommendation of $85,175 for the university’s Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research from revenues earned from the Marion and Irving Langmuir Quasi-Endowment.

The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents also approved the recent appointments of the following new Tech faculty members: Rene Arechiga to the full-time, tenure-track position of associate professor of electrical engineering with the Department of Electrical Engineering; Barbara Bonnekessen to the full-time, tenure-track position of assistant professor of social science with the Department of Humanities; Andrew Budek to the full-time, tenure-track position of assistant professor of civil engineering with the Department of Civil Engineering; Ranis N. Ibragimov to the full-time, tenure-track position of assistant professor of mathematics with the Department of Mathematics; and Corey A. Leclerc to the full-time, tenure-track position of assistant professor of chemical engineering with the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Tech regents were also told during their meeting that Her-Yuan Chen, associate professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering at New Mexico Tech, had recently been re-appointed as the department chairman of the university’s petroleum and natural gas engineering department.

The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents was further informed by Tech administrators that a recent expenditure of more than $100,000 was made by the university’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC) with restricted funds for a sub-contract related to that research division’s ongoing carbon sequestration program.

Later in the meeting, the regents, acting in their capacity as trustees of the New Mexico Tech Employee Benefit Trust, were told that the university’s Indemnity and Preferred Provider Option (PPO) health insurance coverage plans were still in solid financial standing, although expenses had exceeded revenues for the past fiscal year. The trustees were further informed that they would be given an extensive overview of recommendations for proposed changes in the employee benefits plan during the November meeting scheduled for the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents.

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