Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance

committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

if they are used for other purposes.

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).

Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and

attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

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

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/08

HB

SHORT TITLE NMSU Advance Partnership

SB 87

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$600.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

University of New Mexico (UNM

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 87 appropriates $600.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico State University for the Advance Partnership for Diverse Faculty programs with the

University of New Mexico and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $600.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the

general fund.

This request was submitted by NMSU to the New Mexico Higher Education Department

(NMHED) for review, but is not included in the NMHED’s funding recommendations for FY09.

The HED’s evaluation table of FY09 Research and Public Service Projects provided to the LFC

classifies this project as a “would not oppose if funding available" project. Reasons for this

classification decision are not provided. (LFC Report 07-20, Higher Education Department

Senate Bill 87 – Page

2

Review of Selected Research and Public Service Projects, January 12, 2008, Table 4, p74.)

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to NMSU and UNM, TRANSFORMING FACULTY DIVERSITY (TFFD) extends

a nationally recognized successful but non-renewable five-year National Science Foundation

grant (ADVANCE) to support start-up costs for outstanding female and minority scientists. The

strategies used almost doubled the number of female scientists and engineers hired to faculty

positions at NMSU over the past five years, though women and minority faculty in the sciences

remain underrepresented. Continuing to apply these same strategies further supports NMSU’s

national reputation for effective recruitment and retention of women and minorities in the

science and engineers the appropriation in Senate Bill 87 to New Mexico State University for

joint programs at New Mexico Tech and the University of New Mexico.

In addition NMSU states that TFFD support does not go to faculty salaries, but rather provides

new science faculty the resources they need to succeed in highly competitive fields where

establishing a lab and national-caliber research program is extremely costly. Since female and

minority scientists who are highly able and qualified to serve our students the best are in such

high demand, it is critical to provide facilities, laboratory, and research capabilities that are

comparable to those offered by other universities who also compete for these able people. TFFD

supports diverse faculty and students by providing start-up funds for female and

underrepresented minority scientists to develop faculty role models as diverse as our student

population.

The HED states that there is a nationwide attempt to draw minority and female faculty into

academia. This focus on diversity in academy forces NMSU, UNM and NM Tech to complete

with all other doctoral institutions across the nation for superior women and minority candidates.

Ethnic minorities possessing PhDs are scarce throughout the majority of academic fields, and the

representation of women among doctorial recipients varies greatly with fewer women in Science,

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Thus, it proves essential for

attracting excellent candidates to provide them with state-of-the-art instrumentation and lab set-

up in the natural and physical sciences and engineering.

GH/nt