Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Eastern New Mexico University’s Portales campus plans to receive $62.8 million in instruction and general revenues and spend a little less than $56 million in instruction and general funds for the 2023-2024 fiscal year in the operating budget approved Friday by the ENMU Board of Regents.
Tony Major, ENMU’s chief financial officer told the regents on Friday that revenues are projected to increase by nearly $4 million, or 6.8% from the current year’s $52.9 million in instruction and general funds, due to increased student enrollment noted this year.
Expenses are expected to increase by less than $5.2 million, an increase of 9% from the current year’s spending, Major said. The increase is due mostly to changes in employee compensation, Major said, which will be higher than anticipated earlier due to two factors.
One is that pay will rise universally by 6% because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham votoed the word “average” from the bill that set compensation levels for education employees. The 2023 state legislature originally intended for pay increases to average 6%.
The other factor in compensation was a change in employer insurance contributions to 80% from the university and 20% for employees, following a lead established at ENMU’s Roswell campus. Major said the 80-20 plan replaces a sliding scale that had ENMU paying a greater share of insurance costs for lesser paid employees, and smaller shares for higher-paid employees.
In another budget category, Public Service, Major noted that revenues are expected to increase to nearly $2.4 million in 2023-2024, compared with more than $2.2 million in the current fiscal year, an increase of about 6%. Major credited the revenue increase to “much needed” increased state support for KENW public broadcasting operations.
Major also noted increases in revenues and expenses in auxiliary budgets, which include student-paid bookstore dining and residence hall funds, due to increased enrollment.
The budget for intercollegiate athletics will increase from $5.9 million to $6.5 milliion due to increases in state support, Major said.
The regents on Friday also passed operating budgets for ENMU’s community college branches in Roswell and Ruidoso.
Regents also granted professor emeritus status to recently retired Chancellor Patrice Caldwell and to Pattarapon Burusnukul, a marketing professor in ENMU’s College of Business. Burusnukul plans to retire at the end of the current school year, Jamie Laurenz, ENMU’s vice president for academic affairs, told the board.
Caldwell, who already had been granted emeritus status as retired chancellor, on Friday received professor emeritus status for her service as an associate professor of English before she was an administrator.
Caldwell’s academic emeritus standing recognizes her “decades-long support of the Jack Williamson lectureship,” an annual lecture series that honors Williamson, a well-regarded science fiction author who served on the ENMU faculty.
After hearing praise for her service from Laurenz on Friday, Caldwell told the board that a student once asked her why she was so happy all the time.
Caldwell said she answered, “Because when I’m teaching, it’s the best part of my day.”
Burusnukul’s service was praised in a letter from Matthew Haney, co-chair of ENMU’s Faculty Evaluation Committee, which stated Burusnukul contributed significantly to the “College of Business, the university, the Portales community and the hospitality industry.”
Burusnukul, Haney’s letter stated, developed several hospitality internship programs, taught many courses in hospitality marketing and general business. In classroom instruction, the letter continued, Burusnukul “enthusiastically explained the inner workings of marketing luxury brands and showed a passion” for instructing students.”
In other matters Friday:
• The board named Bradbury Stamm Construction Co. of Albuquerque as “Construction Manager At Risk” for a planned Student Academic Services building on the Portales Campus. Major said the manager will work with the planned building’s architect to establish a maximum price for the building’s construction costs. Major said the Student Academic Services building will contain 25,000 square feet of internal office space designed to be convenient to students and parents when enrolling at ENMU.
• Larry Horan, a contract lobbyist for ENMU, told the board that ENMU did well in garnering legislative funding, despite challenges from legislative maneuvering at the beginning of the 60-day session and Chancellor James Johnston’s first-time experience dealing with the legislature.
Horan said some new relationships were formed between ENMU officials and legislators and listed some legislative funding successes.
In a news release Friday, ENMU listed the new funding that Horan spoke of in Friday’s board meeting.
In all, ENMU received $17 million in state funding through the 2023 legislature including, according to the news release.
Eastern New Mexico University-Portales received funding for several projects on the main campus, including:
• $5 million to help complete the Roosevelt Science Center. With this additional funding approved by the state, the Roosevelt Science Center is now scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2024.
• $472,000 for new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education equipment.
• $500,000 for access control at Greyhound Arena.
• $890K for equipment and studio upgrades for KENW public broadcasting stations.
• $500K for a new center-hung video board at Greyhound Arena.
According to the news release, other campuses received:
• $1.2 million for parking lot and driveway repairs at ENMU-Roswell
• $281K for a backup generator at ENMU-Ruidoso.
