Mike Puelle became UNM’s chief government relations officer in 2022 after nearly 30 years in public policy and government relations. His job is to advocate for the University’s priorities during the session.
He works all year long with University leaders as they compile an official list of legislative priorities, including $59 million to build a new humanities and social sciences complex, and a 4% raise for all employees.
The News Port caught up with Puelle at the Roundhouse. What follows is an edited and condensed excerpt from that conversation.
Q: What does being Chief Government Relations Officer mean for UNM?
A: UNM, as a public institution, has a lot of great public policy interests to serve the communities across the state. We also seek a lot of funding so that we can execute on the programs and the mission of the university. And as you know, there’s a lot of missions given the different departments and schools and colleges at UNM so every year, we are very involved in the budget process, year-round, trying to advocate with policy makers in both the legislative branch and the executive branch about how their investments of public money can help achieve benefits for the public and communities across New Mexico.
Q: What is the most important for you to focus on?
A: What’s most important is us being clear about priorities. Each year, there are always many things that deserve funding. Given the breadth of UNM’s involvement in the state, the challenge is making sure that each year we’re clear with policymakers about how their investments this particular budget year will go the furthest.
Q: Do you ever have public opinion go into your processes?
A: Yes, but I do want to say that in our role, we’re working on behalf of the university, so as such a broad community, clearly, the opinions across UNM are pretty diverse and they do impact how the leadership formulates our priorities. But we are up here more wanting to make sure that we are carrying the university message, which is university wide, and again, built up from the bottom through the leadership team.
Q: What would you consider a success?
A: A great question, because we never get everything done. We have a list, as we should, that’s always much longer than we’re able to achieve each year. But some requests and particularly complicated ones, often take more than one year anyway, so those efforts are not lost because you’re hopefully advancing ideas that will also get over the finish line in future sessions. So there’s not one simple mark on success, but it always feels good to get the top priorities finished, or some of the more complicated and difficult ones throughout the years. So it’s, I’d say the measures are based on the year, based on the topic, but the key is to be persistent with these and to be clear about the fact that even when we don’t get across the line the first year that for many of these priorities that we’re going to keep adding.
Other UNM priorities include funding requests and changes to the law that are designed to help achieve UNM’s 2040 Goals. You can follow the Government Relations Office’s work here. Below are some of the official priorities:
Contribute to a Diversified New Mexico Economy and a Well Educated, Homegrown Workforce
- Foster workforce collaborations aligning education with government, industry, national labs, and clean energy sectors.
- Expand infrastructure for research, education, and training in emerging sciences like quantum information science and AI.
- Increase state investments in research, tech development, advanced energy transitions, and new business growth, including the Technology Enhancement Fund.
- Expand STEM-H education capacity and improve pre-K-12 math and literacy outcomes.
- Support UNM infrastructure improvements for student-centered learning and energy efficiency.
- Strengthen educational pathways between New Mexico’s pre-K-12 system, UNM branch campuses, and UNM’s Albuquerque campus.
Enhance Equitable Educational Access, Student Support Services and Campus Safety
- Support funding increases for I&G, UNM RPSPs, capital requests, and targeted appropriations for safety, accessibility, cybersecurity, and facility renewal.
- Sustain state investments in the Opportunity and Lottery Scholarship programs.
- Enhance inclusivity in programs and services to reflect New Mexico’s diverse cultural identities.
- Expand access to health, wellbeing, and basic needs support programs for students.
- Advocate for ASUNM and GPSA on scholarship funding, program support, and capital requests.
- Increase faculty and program endowments to improve student services.
- Upgrade Lobo Athletics facilities and boost support for student-athlete success.
Improve New Mexico’s National Competitiveness and Resident Quality of Life
- Fully fund a minimum 4% compensation increase for all employees, with additional targeted increases for faculty and flexibility to address pay inequities.
- Support capital projects that attract new learners and top faculty.
- Strengthen recruitment and retention incentives for faculty, staff, and health professionals.
- Advocate for policies balancing crime prevention with community support services for issues like substance use, behavioral health, and criminal competency.
- Expand existing loan-for-service and loan repayment programs.
