Missed deadlines lead to $11.5M veto, upending plans for UNM public health school

A rendering of the the building that will house the new College of Nursing and Public Health Excellence at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. (Courtesy of the University of New Mexico)

New Mexico’s flagship research university missed two deadlines to ask for state money to establish an accredited school of public health within the next year to deal with infectious disease pandemics.

The lapse means the UNM Health Sciences Center will not receive $11.5 million for the school, placing in limbo any recent progress to establish the program. This includes potentially losing some of the 21 people hired as faculty since 2022, state Sen. Martin Hickey (D-Albuquerque) said Thursday during a tense exchange with the state’s top higher education official.

“The reason we need to address this today, rather than later on, is that the new faculty — knowing that there is no funding — are looking for jobs elsewhere,” Hickey said. “And they’re getting offers, because they’re really good, new faculty.”

While there is a College of Population Health at the University of New Mexico, it is not an accredited school of public health, according to the agency responsible for evaluating schools of public health in the U.S.

Last winter officials at the UNM Health Sciences Center said the COVID-19 pandemic proved that the state needed a school for students to study public health. In part, they said in a presentation to the New Mexico Higher Education Department, the school would “assist public health offices in working together in an organized way to address pandemics, track and forecast rates of disease.”

The $11.5 million was approved by the legislature to keep that investment moving, and it was cut by a governor’s veto due to an administrative failure by the groups responsible for working together.

On Thursday in front of the Legislative Finance Committee, Hickey and Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez disagreed about whether UNM officials met the deadline last fall for turning in their funding request for the public health school.

Hickey said UNM “did request that this money be funded during the summer,” however, spokespeople for both UNM and the higher education department said they didn’t ask for the money until December.

The most recent state budget lawmakers sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham included $11.5 million for a UNM School of Public Health to be spent over the next three years.

The money “would then create the foundation where the school could become certified as a school of public health,” Hickey said.

However, Lujan Grisham on March 6 vetoed the money because it was “not requested as a Research and Public Service Project or a special appropriation.”

The UNM Health Sciences Center, which oversees the college, did not turn in a Research and Public Service Project request to the department by the Sept. 15, 2023 deadline, a Higher Education Department spokesperson confirmed via email on Thursday.

Henry Valdez, a spokesperson for the state Department of Finance Administration, said UNM also didn’t submit a “special appropriation” for the public health school to that agency by their Oct. 2, 2023 deadline.

Christopher Ramirez, a spokesperson for the UNM Health Sciences Center, said they asked the Legislative Finance Committee for the money — not the Higher Education Department — in December.

“We understand the budget process is a collaboration and believe that there is consensus that this is a critical project for New Mexico to serve our citizens and communities,” Ramirez said in a written statement on Friday. “We are deeply appreciative to our executive and legislative bodies for their support and look forward to bringing this initiative to fruition.”

Secretary Rodriguez said UNM didn’t meet with her staff to discuss the funding request until December. That meeting happened on Dec. 7 at her offices in Santa Fe and was “the first time the department had seen information on the need or request for additional funding to support the College of Population Health,” said department spokesperson Stephanie Montoya.

Rodriguez said she has told UNM officials “time and time again” she wants a plan for the school.

“I want to truly understand what this program — public health or population health, whatever they are saying now — what are you going to do? What is your plan of action?” she asked. “I’ve heard things here and there, but I have not seen pen to paper.”

Hickey said “several sources at the University” spoke with Rodriguez about the school of public health.

“You and I have had conversations about the school of public health several times — the building and the program,” Hickey said. “The plan for the school has always been there.”

A spokesperson for the governor on Thursday referred all questions to the New Mexico Higher Education Department.

‘They’ve uprooted their lives’

UNM and New Mexico State University in October 2022 launched a cooperative PhD program in health equity sciences, which UNM later called a “first step” toward getting an accredited public health school.

Also in 2022, Lujan Grisham signed into law a state budget which included $10 million for “salaries, operations, program development and a space utilization study for a school of public health” at UNM. It also included $5 million for the same purposes at New Mexico State University.

“The governor approved that bill to get a legitimate school of public health,” Hickey said Thursday.

Dr. Tracie Collins, dean of the UNM College of Population Health and former New Mexico health secretary, told lawmakers during the most recent session she used the money to hire 21 new faculty.

Ramirez, the UNM HSC spokesperson, said these hires were made “with the understanding that additional funds would be needed to sustain the initiative.”

“We recruited them here, they’ve uprooted their lives to come to New Mexico, and we need to be able to sustain them as we’re building up the grant funding,” Collins told the Senate Education Committee in January.

But according to the 2022 budget law, the money is only in place through the current state fiscal year, which ends on June 30.

At the same time, UNM officials are anticipating the public health program to have a budget shortfall of $1.5 million, and even larger annual deficits of $5.7 million in the next two years, according to information UNM gave to a legislative analyst in January.

Hickey asked Rodriguez how she will help him assure the UNM Board of Regents, Collins, and the faculty they will get the money “one way or the other.”

“If they don’t hear this by June, then they will leave,” Hickey said. “And that will essentially preclude New Mexico from ever being able to have a reputation as a place to go in public health. Maybe we could start a school, maybe we couldn’t, but again, it would really stain the reputation of New Mexico in support of that, in something that is so well-needed.”

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