“It is a shortfall:” NMSU President addresses $3.3 million hole in budget
New Mexico State University administrators are grappling with a $3.3 million budget shortfall, the president told ABC-7.
“We didn’t get to the bottom of it until pretty recently, like a week ago,” said President John Floros.
He told ABC-7 the previous administration changed the criteria for scholarships.
“This is both good news, bad news,” Floros said. “Obviously, more students wanted to come to NMSU, but we also gave a lot more money than we anticipated.”
Freshman enrollment was up almost 11 percent, a university spokesman confirmed. However, total enrollment was down one percent.
“We will continue to provide scholarships,” Floros said. “However, we need to manage them differently.”
The university must now determine where to find that money in their existing budget of between $700 to $800 million to avoid going into a larger hole, Floros said.
“We’re taking a look at everything under the sun,” Floros said. “We’re looking at support services, we’re looking at academic units, we’re looking at all the different campuses. There’s nothing that we’re not going to take a look at.”
Garrey Carruthers was chancellor until mid-2018. ABC-7 obtained a copy of his rebuttal:
“Although we are supportive of the university and the new administration, it is a disservice to all when facts are twisted or simply ignored, and it is in that spirit of ensuring that the public is fully informed that we offer the following clarification.”
Carruthers insists his administration was transparent with the Board of Regents.
“The critical point here is that at no time was there an effort to conceal information from the Regents. It is unfortunate that an innovative program that has led to double digit increases in freshman enrollment, and which has been adjusted over the course of the last year to reduce costs is being cast in a negative light by the Regents.. the budget process is complex and difficult for some to understand. Nevertheless, we worked hard to be transparent about the budget, and at no time did we withhold information from the Regents.”
