Notes from the March 21, 2005 Regents Meeting

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, April 12, 2005 – The New Mexico Tech Board of Regents has approved a ten percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduate and graduate students attending the state-supported research university, raising tuition and fees “folded” into tuition costs for full-time resident undergrads from the current $1,433 per semester to $1,578 per semester.

Tuition and fees now included as part of tuition costs for resident full-time graduate students at New Mexico Tech were increased from the current $1,498 per semester to $1,648 per semester.

The ten percent tuition increase, coupled with an average seven percent increase in various other fees students pay at New Mexico Tech, will be effective at the start of the upcoming 2005-2006 academic year.

Under the newly approved tuition and fees schedule, out-of-state students attending New Mexico Tech on a full-time basis will pay five percent more for tuition and folded fees this coming fall semester (increased to $4,987 for undergraduates and $5,300 for graduates).

During the board’s April 12 meeting, New Mexico Tech President Daniel H. López assured the regents that even with the tuition and fee increases they approved, costs associated with attending New Mexico Tech will continue to remain the lowest among the state’s three research universities.

“Asking the university’s governing board to approve tuition increases, even though they have all been warranted, has been the least favorite part of my job,” López said. “However, the only alternative to this year’s tuition increase would have been to choose to not give our faculty and staff a three percent raise in their annual salaries, which is now a reality in part because of the additional revenues generated from this tuition increase.”

Paul Ferrell, president of the New Mexico Tech Student Association, told the regents that a previously held meeting to discuss the proposed increases with student representatives and other interested students showed a general support of the hikes among those attending.

In other official actions taken by the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents, the regents voted to approve the following measures:

• appointment of Hectore Erives to the full-time, tenure-track faculty position of assistant professor of electrical engineering;
• promotions of Kenneth Minschwaner to professor of physics and Ivan Avramidi to professor of mathematics;
• a 2004-2005 Budget Adjustment Request;
• a low-bidder contract to repair hail damage on the roofs of ten campus buildings, totaling $371,534, awarded to Commercial Roofing of Albuquerque;
  subscription renewals for journals and periodicals for the Joseph R. Skeen Library, totaling $444,462, awarded to EBSCO Subscription Services; and
• a construction project totaling $431,351 to renovate what was once the mercantile store at New Mexico Tech’s Playas Training and Research Center and convert it into classroom space for training programs conducted at the facility.