The University of New Mexico has paid its former architect and director of planning, design, and construction $425,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging she was pushed out of her job after raising alarms over a campus arts building whose budget increased by about 43% in six months. Amy Coburn, who held the role for a decade, says she lost her authority and was frozen out of meetings after questioning how the Center for Collaborative Arts and Technology project rose from $65 million to $93 million within six months.
According to KOAT, the project's budget rose within six months. The project initially carried a $65 million price tag, funded through $45 million in state capital obligation bonds and $20 million in university institutional bonds, the station reports. Those institutional bonds were financed by raising student fees, making the cost increases especially sensitive given that students were already paying more.
Documents from UNM's own bond program describe the project's original scope as a 62,100-square-foot Phase I facility costing $65 million, intended to house exhibition spaces, theater and music rehearsal rooms, and a large concert hall. Coburn has said design changes along the way affected how project costs were calculated, feeding into the jump toward $93 million.
Pushed Out After Raising Concerns
According to the koat.com report, Coburn said that after she spoke up about the budget spike and its disruption to the project, she received sharp personal pushback. She was excluded from subsequent discussions and said she lost much of the departmental authority she had previously held to manage projects and control costs.
Her position was eliminated by the university in 2024, something Coburn believes was retaliation for flagging the budget increase. She filed suit against UNM's Board of Regents that July, alleging violations of the state's Whistleblower Protection Act and seeking damages and back pay, per the same account.
“I just hope what happened to me doesn't need to happen to another committed employee,” Coburn said, according to the station's report.
Settlement Reached, No Fault Admitted
After nearly two years in court, Coburn and UNM reached a settlement, and the case was dismissed. The agreement did not include any admission of wrongdoing by the university. A UNM spokesman said the university does not comment on personnel or litigation matters, adding that court documentation reflecting each side's position is publicly available.
The university also said in a statement that it remains focused on educating students, promoting discovery through research, and advancing New Mexico's interests — language that did not address Coburn's specific allegations.
Student Fees Remain a Flashpoint
The dispute over using student money to backstop construction costs has not gone away. The Board of Regents more recently weighed using student facility fees to help close funding gaps on several ongoing infrastructure projects, including a new humanities building, according to the Daily Lobo. One proposal would have raised the facility fee by $30 while cutting the mandatory student fee by the same amount, the student paper reported.
Coburn's case is not the only whistleblower dispute roiling a New Mexico public university. At New Mexico Highlands University, former vice president Paul Grindstaff has accused the school of retaliating against him after he reported unsafe athletic facilities and equipment, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. Grindstaff's federal lawsuit alleges Highlands' regents fired him for whistleblowing and made false accusations about him in a letter to the state auditor. The newspaper also reports that former Highlands president Neil Woolf has filed his own separate lawsuit against the school, alleging retaliation over a construction deal.
