The advisory board for the local branch campus recently approved its annual budget with no tuition increases and a 4 percent increase in employee pay.
Dr. Alice Letteney, the chief executive officer for The University of New Mexico-Valencia campus, said the initial language for the increase in compensation was a 4-percent average.
“The governor line-item vetoed the average part, so it’s a 4 percent increase across the board,” Letteney said.
The increased compensation will take effect on July 1, when the new fiscal year begins for the campus.
Resident tuition for the 2019-20 school year will remain the same as the current academic year — $78.25 per credit hour, including fees.
Non-resident tuition will remain at $213.75 per credit hour, including fees. This is the third year in a row that tuition at UNM-Valencia has stayed flat.
Rick Goshorn, the campus’s director of business operations, said the campus would be able to cover the pay increases due to some increased revenues from the local mill levy and dual enrollment.
The local levy is projected to increase 3 percent, $84,545, for the 2019-2020 fiscal year and dual enrollment increased by $100,500.
Letteney said in addition to the campus being reimbursed for instructor’s time by school districts participating in the dual enrollment program, the state legislature had allocated an additional $400,000 for dual enrollment statewide.
“We anticipate some retirements, which we won’t fill,” Goshorn said, “which should be an additional $100,000.”
The budget approved by the advisory board is projecting a reduction from tuition and fee revenues of 8.77 percent, $1.7 million down from last year’s $1,863,390.
Enrollment at the UNM-Valencia campus increased for several years. However, with the economy improving and job opportunities becoming available, director of student affairs Hank Vigil has advised the board enrollment numbers are coming down.
“You can’t blame people for taking the opportunity to work,” Vigil said.
State appropriations, which is 50 percent of the campus’s budget will see a 3.1 percent increase, from $5,309,665 to an estimated $5,474,300.
“This is a very fine-tuned budget,” Goshorn said.
Julia M. Dendinger began working at the VCNB in 2006. She covers Valencia County government, Belen Consolidated Schools and the village of Bosque Farms. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande chapter’s board of directors.
