FORUM: NMSU's Financial Health 2010 and Beyond

SPECIAL REPORT slide show - What is Transparency? NMSU-AAUP presentation to Faculty Senate - April 1st

At 3:27 PM April 9th 2010 the Howard Bunsis Slides were released by NMSU-AAUP to the public. See Press Release.

If you could not attend, review the slides (or print out a high quality PDF of the slides), & watch the videos above, then fill out survey.

We put the Bunsis videos up on YouTube in several 10 minute segments. We suggest you print out a high quality PDF of the slides, as you watch and listen to the video. It was not possible to get higher resolution video. For best results use 480p setting in YouTube. $20 to receive a DVD by mail of the presentation in which all slides are visible.

• Part 1 - Introduction to NMSU-AAUP chapter and to Howard Bunsis by David Boje
• Part 2 Howard Bunsis begins his analysis of NMSU Financial Situation "University is in fine financial situation.. tuition has increased more rapidly than inflation.. Have faculty and students been given sufficient time to participate.. in 2% 6% 10% cut scenario?... Why did the university change auditors? ... The University is not even close to being broke. Any statements that hint at that are simply untrue.."
• Part 3 Howard Bunsis looks at the Revenues and Expenditures of NMSU "... it was not the operations of the university that caused financial setback. Rather, it was the loss in the stock market of university investments. NMSU has $559 million in revenues.. there is just a lot of money lying around.. this university has 28% reserves which is quite strong.."
• Part 4 Howard Bunsis looks at cuts in the State of New Mexico appropriation to higher education "Tuition has gone up higher than the rate of inflation. The obvious question is why?... The budget book ... has hundreds of accounts. The audited statement has 17 lines. How does the budget book map into these lines... For example, instruction sounds like its all faculty lines... The president mentioned athletics took a big budget cuts. Over the last four years, athletics (expenditures) has actually increased.. There is no way budgets to athletics have been cut over the past few years.. What percent of costs go to education in the classroom?... the core mission.. Over all there has been a 29% increase in four years (in enrollment at NMSU)...tremendous increases in enrollment.. consistent and solid enrollment growth.. What has been happening to faculty?... "
• Part 5 Howard Bunsis does a second analysis of tuition increases and looks at faculty salaries "Tuition has more than doubled from 2000 to 2010." Faculty salaries are reviewed in this segment. "about 11% lower at NMSU than ... peer list of other institutions ...You to know who is on this list and do they make sense... " The annual faculty salary study. in (AAUP publication) Academe .... Faculty costs are less than 15% of the entire budget.. "The Moody ratings of NMSU's financial heath... Slide 31 -- bond rating of Aa3 -- outlook remains stable (2nd highest rating out of 9)... Bond ratings do say something about the overall health of the university..."
• Part 6 Howard Bunsis looks more at State appropriations and finishes with the Athletics expenditures
• Part 7 Howard Bunsis continues his look into Athletics and makes his overall conclusions about financial health of NMSU. This begins the Q &A portion
• Part 8 Howard Bunsis continues the Q &A answering questions about the best way to present persuasive arguments to the board of regents on May 7th

MORE INFO ON THE April 9th Forum:

• 6 simple questions:

1. What is the financial condition of New Mexico State University?
2. What percent of our budget is actually from the state?
3. What is growth of tuition revenue?
4. Where does the money go?
5. How does one read a university budget?
6. Are cuts necessary?

FORUM: NMSU's Financial Health 2010 & Beyond

. Howard Bunsis (Chair of the Collective Bargaining Congress, National AAUP Treasurer, Professor of Accounting at Eastern Michigan University) was the featured AAUP speaker who interpreted the New Mexico legislative cutbacks impact on NMSU financial health. Senate Gallery Room in 3rd floor of Corbett Center. Co-sponsors: ASNMSU, NMSU-AAUP.

Please fill out 7 question Survey on Howard Bunsis FORUM and ideas for Budget Cuts and Transparency at NMSU - If you could not attend, review the slides (or print out a high quality PDF of the slides), & watch the videos above, then fill out survey.

This is second of 2 surveys. These ideas will be given to NMSU Budget Committee, media throughout the state, and to Regents at May 7th Meeting.

This survey will remain open until 5 May 2010. NMSU's Financial Health 2010 & Beyond (press release) | More Info on inter-campus event held Apr 9th | More information on Main Campus FORUM held Apr 9th | Press Release by NMSU-AAUP |

Good News! Half Billion In Stimulus Money Coming To Southern NM - News Story - KFOX El Paso

Phil Anaya-KFOX News Reporter
Posted: 5:02 pm MDT March 15,2010
Updated: 6:00 pm MDT March 15,2010

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Monday, former New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya visited the New Mexico State University campus to announce that roughly $500 million of federal stimulus money will be headed to southern New Mexico. That includes close to $6 million to go to NMSU. It is good timing since President Barbara Couture recently sent a letter to faculty and staff stating the university's upcoming budget will be cut by $12 million. Anaya said without the stimulus money New Mexico’s budget crises would be even worse.
“One can go down the list and its but for the stimulus, the state would be in a very serious depression,” said Anaya.
NMSU's budget cuts are so big that $6 million alone won't fix the gap, and there's no word yet as to how the board of regents plans to do so. They will be meeting on April 1 to make those decisions.

HOLD ON: After release of the good news, we found out that NMSU is going to use the monies from stimulus for physical plant upkeep and not put it into anything related to classroom teaching where the I&G cuts are being made. We would like some transparency on exactly where the stimulus money is going, and who decided it, and why?

• Raising Tuition, Again?
• Cutting faculty & staff positions, Again?
• Increasing faculty teaching load and class sizes, Again?
• How can NMSU cut the LIBRARY budget 27% and call itself a Research University?
• Does raising tuition and cutting faculty make any sense when student enrollment continues to grow?

THE POINT: NMSU's chapter of AAUP is committed to shared governance and should it actually be necessary to make cuts it is our hope that such important decisions are made collectively and transparently. Budgets can appear complicated and it can be difficult to ascertain the comprehensive story. For instance, many might be surprised to find out that less than 40% of the University budget comes from the state - NMSU fy 2008-2009 budget reports it as 38% state; 13% tuition & fees; 33% grants & contracts. So which is it? The total expenditures were $1/2 billion and yet only the state appropriates and the tuition and fees are being looked at. Let's look at the whole pie, not two slices.| source

See the Online NMSU Budget FY 09 - 10

And when you add it up, what does a cut mean? 9.8% of what? Each college and unit is doing those 2% to 10% scenarios and figuring how to surrender open faculty and staff lines, reclassify people, increase class size, teach summer school at reduced rates, cut travel budgets, postpone this or that. And when you add it up, what will be the result? Our workloads increase, class size increases, time to graduate increases, time to graduate at NMSU increases, and we have fewer resources to make those 3% expansions in enrollment each year the State funding formula mandates. In the 10% scenario we are told its furlough time, and time to cut graduate worker appointments. Everyone is hoping its only the 6% scenario. And that depends on Regents increasing student tuitions by at least 5%, more apt to be 9% , on April 1st. Then, every one breathes a sigh of relief, except students in the poorest state in the Union are paying more, and working more, and borrowing more. Its time to get the facts, to find out where $1/2 billion in expenditures at NMSU is going, and how money is moved around, how lines from here are surrendered to finance pots of money over there.

Look at last time around: Fuzzy Math

The total State government Appropriations was reduced by 2.67% over estimated actual in FY 2008-2009. NMSU state appropriations actually only fell by only .65% as compared to the 2.67% predicted.

Let's have a CPA, not from around here, look at the budget notebooks. In the interest of fully understanding the budget NMSU's AAUP chapter has invited an expert on university budget analysis, Dr. Howard Bunsis, to campus to dig a little deeper into what is happening in 2010.

Look at what Howard found in Maine:

"Administrators say we’re broke? That’s not what our accountant tells us. Such is the sentiment at the University of Maine, where a recently completed audit challenges the notion that the university is in dire straits and will have to cut positions. Drawing primarily upon audited financial statements, an Eastern Michigan University accounting professor issued a student- and faculty-commissioned report last week that found the Maine system’s unrestricted net assets grew to $84 million in 2009, up from about $50 million in 2005. The findings contradict administrators’ gloomy public statements about the fiscal situation at the system, according to Howard Bunsis, who wrote the report. The University of Southern Maine campus, which was given its own analysis in Bunsis's audit, sustained a $2.7 million budget reduction last year, prompting controversial plans to cut German studies, among other measures."

Without an external audit, we won't know if the gloom and doom at NMSU is a similar event.

. Howard Bunsis's facebook page | Print 2 page flyer | and post it on your campus.

Howard Bunsis is a CPA and licensed attorney with research interests that include:

• State and local government financial performance.
• Hew holds the positions of: Professor of Accounting at Eastern Michigan University;
• Secretary-Treasurer of the National AAUP;
• Chair of the Collective Bargaining Congress of the AAUP;
• Treasurer of the EMU chapter of the AAUP.

We are getting lots of FAQ about Financial Health of NMSU - See our special FAQ page & See the Online NMSU Budget FY 09 - 10 | SLIDE SHOW: What is Faculty Role in Budget Transparency? |

There is only seating for 75 on April 9th 3-5 P.M. in Senate Gallery room of Corbett Center, so please reserve a seat for yourself & friend by April 5th - see info on the 1:30-2:30 Inter-campus broadcast | Print 2 page flyer |

Please fill out Comment Survey on Howard Bunsis FORUM and ideas for Budget Cuts and Transparency at NMSU - these ideas will be given to NMSU Budget Committee and to Regents at May 7th Meeting.

Return to NMSU AAUP home page