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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Picraux

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/27/2007

2/3/2007 HB 169a/HEC

SHORT TITLE UNM Undergraduate Mentoring Programs

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$1,132.3

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB 273, SB 3, and HB 185

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

University of New Mexico (UNM)

Responses not Received From

Higher Education Department

SUMMARY

Synopsis of the HEC Amendment

The House Education Committee amendment changes the bill title from “An Act Making an

Appropriation for the Undergraduate to Medical School Mentoring Programs at the University of

New Mexico" to “An Act Making an Appropriation for the Combined BA-MD Degree Programs

at the University of New Mexico." The title now more clearly reflects the content of the bill

which provides assistance to medical students beginning as undergraduates and continuing

through medical school.

House Bill 169/aHEC – Page

2

Synopsis of Original Bill

House Bill 169 appropriates $1,132,300 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of the

University New Mexico for expenditure in FY 2008 for the Health Sciences Center (HSC) to

fund and administer the third year of programs in UNM’s BA-MD Program that provides

consistent mentoring and training for medical students beginning as undergraduates and

continuing through medical school.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $1,132,300 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2008 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The BA/MD program is designed to provide a pipeline for students to obtain a Bachelor of Arts

Degree then a reserved space for a medical degree to ultimately provide physicians to serve New

Mexico’s medically underserved areas. The program is also designed to encourage students to

remain in New Mexico and practice medicine in rural areas.

The Legislative Finance Committee recommended $4.0 million in HSC Instruction and General

(I&G) expenditures for the BA/MD Program including the expansion.

The base ($1,462,100) and the expansion ($1,132,300) requests were submitted to the New

Mexico Higher Education Department.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The program will expand the medical school class from 75 to 100 students per year because 25

New Mexico high school seniors will enter the program each year. The initial student cohort

began at UNM in fall 2006. According to data from UNM, 141 students applied for the 2006

pool, and 91 were interviewed. Of this amount, 49 percent were from outside of the Albuquerque

metropolitan area and 48 percent were underrepresented minority applicants. Average grade

point average was 4.11, with an average ACT score of 26.6.

Eleven of the students were ranked No. 1 in their graduating class. The committee provides

funds for programs that serve statewide

The UNM/HSC provides performance information in the FY 2008 request as follows:

FY 06 Actual FY 07 Estimates FY 08 Target

# of BA/MD applicants 141 160 180

# admitted to BA/MA prg. 30 30 30

# admitted outside Bern. County 21 21 21

Faculty FTE supporting prg. 3.75 4.0 3.75

Staff FTE supporting prg. 5.0 1.0 3.0

House Bill 169/aHEC – Page

3

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB 273 – appropriates $198,800 for a UNM college mentoring program.

SB 3 (Small University Medical Student Recruitment) and HB 185 (Health Care Career Student

Recruitment) – appropriate (SB 3) $125,000 or $250,000 (HB 185) to NMHU for a pro-

gram that will better prepare undergraduate students from smaller universities for

successful entry into medical school or other related health fields.

BM/mt