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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/18/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE

LUNA COLLEGE INFO TECHNOLOGY

SB 1038

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$750.0

Non-Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico Department of Higher Education (NMDHE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 1038 appropriates $750,000 from the General Fund to the New Mexico Higher

Education Department for expenditure in Fiscal Year 2008 for Information Technology

(IT) services at Luna Community College (LCC).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $750,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

A recent assessment of IT services at LCC was conducted by a team of professionals from New

Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) and LCC. Their assessment exposed the following

findings:

Senate Bill 1038 – Page

2

Over the last 18 months, LCC has experienced serious turnover in personnel within their

computer center. This situation has caused a loss of institutional knowledge, and a lack of critical

strategic IT direction for the college. The assessment revealed a disorganized data center with

outdated equipment and server configuration inconsistencies. This has also affected their support

resources for distance learning services, computer lab support, end-user support, and the

college’s ability to provide required reports to external organizations such as NMHED.

According to a LCC spokesperson, SB1038 would provide funding for joint efforts with NMHU

to support IT services for the college. The funding would be specifically used for:

Campus administrative software upgrades (Jenzabar)

Network infrastructure upgrades (routers, switches, wireless, and video)

Server upgrades (support for email and course management software)

Licensing upgrades (desktop software and office applications)

Training & professional development for IT staff

This specific IT request was not submitted by LCC to NMHED for review and is not included in

the Department’s funding recommendation for FY08.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The assessment team recommended that clear goals and objectives need to be achieved in order

to provide LCC with stability in IT services. This includes long-term planning and identification

of resources to fulfill these objectives. The NMHED encourages the development of an annual

IT Plan for inclusion in its funding recommendations.

LCC is included in the funding request for the statewide eLearning infrastructure that consists of

enterprise licensing for a learning management system and web-conferencing systems.

GM/nt