Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES -- A device that would help diagnose and measure progress in brain response related to speech and hearing leads a list of projects for which Eastern New Mexico University may seek legislative funding over the next year.
The “brain computer interface” device that leads the list is estimated to cost about $397,000, according to documents ENMU’s interim chief financial officer Tony Major submitted Friday to the university’s board of regents.
The full list of “potential projects” would cost nearly $7.8 million, according to a document Major presented to the regents.
The nine most urgent projects, which have an estimated cost of $2.8 million, include:
• Artificial turf for ENMU’s soccer field at $500,000.
• Transmitter and signal conversion equipment, including equipment that would improve KENW reception in Hobbs and Roswell, $1.3 million.
• A new concert grand piano for the music department, $191,310.
• A new video board for Greyhound Arena to enhance the experience of athletic events, graduation ceremonies and other events, $575,000.
• Improved Information technology security equipment and wireless network improvements, $350,000.
• Four storge buildings to replace space in Harding Hall and Bernalillo, which are being torn down, $450,000.
• A virtual anatomy table, with visualization system for human and animal cadavers to teach biology, anatomy and diagnosis, $83,200.
• Replacement lighting at ENMU’s baseball field to meet NCAA requirements for LED lights that improve sustainability and efficiency, $260,000.
The list also named 10 less-urgent projects that include, among others, rebricking and interior improvements to Eddy Hall, a dormitory, estimated at $2.5 million, a marquee highway sign that would promote ENMU and recruit students with a cost of $505,000, and two analytical devices that use nuclear magnetic resonance, and x-rays for teaching molecular structure and characterizing crystalline compounds, $472,185.
The university’s apparent failure to apply for grants from a $110 million pool of faculty endowment through the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) led to discussion on whether ENMU should hire a grant writer.
ENMU faculty members were “too busy” to seek the grants, officials said on Friday.
Regent Trish Ruiz said she wasn’t sure faculty members should be writing grants, anyway, because grant writing is a complex, time-consuming exercise that would be better performed by a full-time grant writer.
HED awarded grants to 13 colleges and universities, statewide, according to the HED website.
Most of the grants were in the $2 million to $2.5 million range, according to the website.
The regents on Friday also approved a new master’s degree program designed to increase understanding of how people interact with environments and environmental policy.
The program is designed to lead to master’s degrees in environmental psychology, and planners predict well-paid jobs in the areas of urban planning, environmental and internal design and climate change.
The environmental psychology program would be the only one offered in New Mexico, said Jamie Laurenz, ENMU’s vice president of academic affairs.
The program can be launched using existing faculty and resources, Laurenz said.
The regents on Friday also approved requests to the state Legislature for budget increases of $125,000 for KENW in concert with other New Mexico public broadcasting stations, and $175,000 for a new “literacy assessment and intervention project” that would provide diagnostic screening, coaching and assistance to public school students, kindergarten through 12th grade, to enhance reading competence at grade level.
The two amendments join ENMU budget requests that also include $2.9 million for KENW operations, nearly $3 million for athletic programs, and requests ranging from $90,000 for improvements at the Blackwater Draw site to $399,320 for ENMU student success programs.
The regents on Friday also approved naming the education building on campus for Gay Su Pinnell, an ENMU graduate who achieved national prominence as an educator, author and philanthropist, ENMU Chancellor Patrice Caldwell said.
Pinnell has donated $2.5 million to the campus, Caldwell said.
