Plans to spend much of Northern New Mexico College’s solar research funding on unrelated business administration offices and classrooms cost the college more than $25,000, despite administrators’ claims that the idea was never being seriously considered.
Legislators gave Northern $3 million last year “to acquire land for and plan, design, construct and equip a solar energy research park at the Española campus.” The college received $2 million in July and voters approved the remaining $1 million in a statewide bond measure in November.
Early plans called for using that money to purchase research equipment and build a 10,000-square-foot annex to Northern’s High Technology building, which houses engineering programs.
But last April, months before Northern saw a dime of that money, administrators told Northern’s Board of Regents of a plan to use much of it to expand its 14,000-square-foot teacher education construction project to include a wing housing Northern’s business administration program.
One sixth of the z12.000-square-foot business administration wing would have been reserved as office space for administrators overseeing the solar research program, Vice President Tom Garcia said at the time. Engineering Dean Andres Salazar said then the plan was justified because part of the solar program’s mission is to incubate businesses to market the technology that grew out of the college’s research.
Northern President Jose Griego has repeatedly chided a SUN reporter for reporting on the plan. He has argued it was “irresponsible” to report on the plan, which he said was an idea never discussed in earnest. He has cited those reports as justification for refusing to comment for stories about the college.
Despite Griego’s assertions, the plan went past informal discussions. Correspondence shows that Northern paid an architectural firm $25,322 to study the plan, according to invoices.
In a Jan. 29, 2008, memo, Facilities Director Anne Quinn asked Purchasing Director Linda Atencio to transfer $25,322 in solar program funds to the teacher education project. That amount had been drawn from teacher education construction funds to pay architecture firm Vigil and Associates for schematic designs “to include (the solar research program) in the (teacher education) building,” the memo states.
“I’m not really sure what you’re referring to,” Griego said of the invoice.
He referred further questions to a spokesman.
Board Chairman Michael Branch at the time called questions about the plan “premature,” saying it had not yet been brought to the Board for approval.
“None of that has happened yet, so at this point, it’s just speculation,” Branch said last spring.
Branch said the plan was in fact being seriously considered last spring as a way to save the college money by combining the projects, but the Board had not been apprised of the specifics when the SUN wrote about it.
Northern has since reverted to its original plan, and is preparing a request for proposals for construction of a solar research building adjacent to the engineering building, Facilities Director Anne Quinn said. The building, projected at 5,000 to 6,000 square feet with a cost $1.5 million, would include classroom, office and laboratory space for the solar program, according to a draft proposal.
Plans for the $3 million teacher education building have shrunk to 10,000 square feet due to rising construction costs.
Northern plans to seek bids for that project after obtaining state Board of Finance approval, which is scheduled for late April, Quinn said.