Regents vote to keep rates unchanged

PORTALES — For the moment, at least, Eastern New Mexico University regents received a bit of good news for the 2021-22 school year and voted unanimously Friday to keep tuition and fee rates unchanged for the upcoming school year.

Vice President of Business Affairs Scott Smart had told regents in their Nov. 13 meeting he anticipated bringing a request to raise tuition and fees by 5% in the face of declining enrollment and state funding.

But in Friday's virtual meeting, Smart said a recent Legislative Finance Council meeting indicated that budgets developed for state agencies would be flat. With that information, Smart altered his request to keep tuition and fees flat as well to help students and help the university recruit and retain students.

“We reserve the right,” Smart warned, “to come back to seek tuition and fee increases if something drastic were to happen at the state level.”

Before the 5-0 vote to accept, Board President Terry Othick said the projected flat budget was good news, but could obviously change and “we'll keep our fingers crossed.”

Regents decided to table requests to increase room and board by 3% and meal service by 5%. They shared concerns the food service could be further negotiated.

“There's concern about regaining the momentum with our enrollment,” Othick said. “The last thing we want to do is put any financial barriers on their incentive to come back to campus.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Jeff Long said he hoped to have the matter approved in December so the college could provide information for families on the overall semester costs for a student.

Othick said if needed, the matter could be handled in a special meeting.

In other business at the meeting:

• In their final official meeting as a group, the board's three outgoing regents were honored.

“It's not the way we would like to do this,” Chancellor Patrice Caldwell said, “but we'll try to do this with all of the sincerity we can convey electronically.”

Othick was the most tenured, with a six-year term that Caldwell said, “must have felt like 16.” Othick noted two presidential changes on the Portales campus, another on the Ruidoso campus, on-and-off talks on the presidential residence renovations, a football stadium sale and everything pandemic related. Othick said he appreciated administrative support, and the thing he missed most was having meetings at the different campuses.

“There's times it's a lot of fun, and times it's not a lot of fun,” Othick said. “I think all of the regents, current and past, from what I've seen, is they work to make sure the needs of the students and the university come first. You can't please everyone, as we've seen recently, because the university has such an impact on the Portales community.”

Ed Tatum was appointed in 2017 to serve out the remainder of his late wife Susan's term.

“It was an honor to follow her,” Tatum said. “I miss her and we all do. I'm glad to be allowed to do that.”

Student Regent Joseph Gergel, now attending law school at Notre Dame, said it was intimidating to come on in 2019 as an undergraduate but that the other regents helped him along.

“It's been an incredible honor to serve on this board for the past two years,” Gergel said, “and it's hard to believe it's been two years.”

The outgoing regents remain in place until successors are named by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and approved by the Senate. The two remaining regents, Dan Patterson and Lance Pyle, have been elected president and vice president, respectively, for the upcoming year.

• Smart told regents the Legislature may have some capital outlay, and he plans to bring between $1.1 and $1.2 million in capital outlay requests to Santa Fe in three projects.

The requests would be $500,000 to continue security upgrades to building entrances and exits, $300,000 for equipment at KENW and $300,000 to replace the Theatre Center's roof.

The roof has not had any problems, but Smart noted it is 30 years old and replacing it before problems arise is the wiser investment.

• Enrollment Services Director Cody Spitz said his department has attended numerous virtual fairs, and did its own virtual preview in place of the standard open house. What is normally handled with eight hours on campus on a Saturday, Spitz said, was converted into virtual sessions that will be archived on the university website through December. Videos include campus tours and separate listening sessions for parents and students.

• In her chancellor update, Caldwell said the college was down 1.2% on its headcount and down 15% in credit hours, but felt the LFC's prediction of flat budgets was good news.

“I think we are seeing recovery in the economy,” Caldwell said. “It's slow but it is recovery. I'd be remiss to (not) point out a lot of that recovery is coming from southeastern New Mexico. Unfortunately, there are a lot of upticks in COVID because of that work.”

Caldwell also noted the college's electronics engineering technology program had seven fall graduates, and all seven have jobs lined up.

• Human Resources Director Benito Gonzales updated regents on how university employees were working during the pandemic.

Of the university's 732 employees across all three campuses, 138 (19%) are working entirely from home and 203 (28%) are working entirely on campus (28%).

“Our employees have risen to the challenge, even in the face of restrictions,” Gonzales said. “Managers have had to adapt to remote work. Their jobs are harder, making sure people get their work done without being able to supervise them in traditional ways. We're fortunate a lot of the work we have to do can be done from home.”

Among the 420 employees splitting hours between home and campus, 259 are working 20 hours or more at home per week.

The Portales campus has the highest percentage of employees working entirely on campus, 31%, with 153 of its 494 employees fitting that definition.

The Roswell campus has the highest percentage of employees working entirely from home, 32%, with 58 of its 179 employees in that situation.

Gonzales said he and others look forward to being able to be back on campus with students, attend Greyhound games and do simple things like having a meal in the dining hall.