NMSU releases staff study, sets goal of becoming ’21st century university’
New Mexico State University President Garrey Carruthers on Tuesday announced the results of a staff study with the goal of transforming NMSU into a “21st century university.”
The study was conducted by Deloitte Consultants.
Carruthers asked Deloitte, “Is or is not NMSU overstaffed?” Deloitte’s response was that rather than being overstaffed, NMSU is poorly organized.
Deloitte added that there is considerable “fragmentation” at the function level with work being performed that is distributed broadly across the university.
The university faces several obstacles as it attempts its transformations.
Standard & Poor’s has just issued notice that NMSU was downgraded from “AA” to “AA- Outlook is Stable,” citing reason for downgrade as declines in enrollment and operating deficits on an adjusted basis.
Declining enrollment.
Increasing costs of delivering educational services. Shrinking federal research funding.
Deloitte says the project implementation would take two to three years and estimates a potential cost savings of up to $53 million for the key opportunities combined.
If NMSU can be transformed, the university can then begin to:
• Stabilize management and budgeting
• Generate funds for:
• Teaching
• Research
• Compensation
• Scholarships
• Graduate Assistant Programs
Carruthers said told NMSU staff on Tuesday that he would like to pay staff more money and that he also would like to increase the number of graduate students which would, among other things, increase the universities research capabilities.