The New Mexico Higher Education Department said Wednesday that the state’s colleges and universities have more than $1 billion in infrastructure needs.
In a news release, the department said officials traveled over 700 miles across the state for its annual summer hearings to assess infrastructure needs and requests — called capital outlay — to bring to the Legislature in next year’s session.
Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez and the agency’s Capital Projects Division hosted meetings with the Department of Finance and Administration; the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department; and the Legislative Finance Committee, according to the news release.
Using data from campus leaders, the department will recommend specific capital projects to the executive and legislative branches, who will then debate the funding during the budget-focused 30-day legislative session that begins in January.
Last year, HED recommended approximately $221 million in campus infrastructure projects to DFA and the LFC, the news release states. Lawmakers approved 25 projects totaling more than $44 million, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed two of those totaling $350,000, according to LFC documents.
Rodriguez’s final tour visits in August took place at the New Mexico School for the Deaf and the Institute of American Indian Arts. In an interview at the time, she told Source NM, she had previously visited New Mexico State University’s main campus in Las Cruces; the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell; Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell; and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
“Visiting all 33 campuses and schools in person has provided me with valuable insights we can’t get from reports alone,” Rodriguez said in a statement on Wednesday. “As the first higher education cabinet secretary to personally step foot on every public college, university and special school in the state, these visits have directly shaped the agency’s funding recommendations to support the unique needs of each school, strengthen student success and ensure that education in New Mexico continues to grow and thrive in state-of-the-art facilities.”
