If all goes according to University of New Mexico President Dr. David Schmidly's ambitious plan, this year's batch of sophomores at Rio Rancho High School could remain in the City of Vision for their college courses if they choose to study at UNM.

Speaking before a full house at Chamisa Hills Country Club Monday, where he was a guest of the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce, Schmidly told of his plans to have a campus up and running in Rio Rancho by the fall of 2009.

It will take a cooperative effort between UNM and Central New Mexico Community College (formerly TVI), he said, but that's what has worked in the past under his guidance. But, he pointed out, "It is not easy to start and build an entirely new campus."

One of the hurdles in efforting Schmidly's plan will be in the hands of the voters, who will need to pass a bond issue to provide funding for part of the new UNM West campus, which will be located east of the new City Centre and near Cleveland High School.

Schmidly, who lives in Placitas, told the gathering how he had overseen a similar effort in Oklahoma. Members of the Rio Rancho Governing Body, Sandoval County Commission and Rio Rancho Public Schools, as well as area legislators, chamber members and business leaders attended the event.

"My hope is, sometime in the next year or so, assuming these elections go well, we look forward to hiring a senior executive for out here in Rio Rancho, with the experience in building branch campuses to work here with me and my leadership team to further develop the campus," Schmidly said. "The goal will be to open with the first class in the fall of 2009."

The is agenda is "very ambitious," Schmidly said.

"The place to star is over the course of the next year to have successful outcomes, and to begin working with the Legislature this session. We can move forward with this campus; we're ready right away. Then we move forward with our executive hire, and then we create our transportation system."

Schmidly was named the new president at UNM in February. He has served in administrative posts at Texas Tech and the Texas A&M branch in Galveston before he moved north and worked to start the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa branch. He outlined how that latter process worked - and how it will be a blueprint of sorts for UNM West.

Schmidly defined his "Two plus two" plan, in which students attended Tulsa Community College for two years before completing their bachelor's work at OSU-Tulsa; students were bused in both directions, as were faculty members.

"Take resources from two separate campuses and put them together," he said, explaining that effort.

He envisioned that as a way UNM West would work for a few years before, expecting an enrollment of 10,000 by 2020, the Rio Rancho campus to be a "stand alone" four-year, full-service campus, with dormitories and a full offering of college courses, plus a science and technology research and development facility.

But first, come partnerships among UNM and the City of Rio Rancho, CNM and even New Mexico Highlands University and New Mexico State University, which would make course offerings available for college freshmen. And, like he had in Oklahoma to send students and faculty in both directions, add a "Lobo bus" to facilitate transportation.

Bond elections and a question to be placed before voters seeking an OK on an increase in gross receipts taxes could be stumbling blocks.

State Sen. Joe Carraro said he was enthused by what he'd heard.

"It's a very exciting time; we've been working on this for many, many years and, over time, you just keep thinking it's going to happen but you just can't visualize it.

"Today, we're able to visualize it, with President Schmidly coming before us and explaining exactly not only what's going to happen but when it's going to happen," Carraro said.

Carraro's lone question regarded voter support.

"I think sometimes the tax problems ... the public has to go ahead and support their efforts, maybe, at increasing their taxes," he said. "However, there's enough people moving out here and enough situations where we know there's going to be tremendous growth to be not only supply the students but I also think be able to supply the additional tax funds.

"I think when it comes to UNM, the citizens of Rio Rancho would enjoy having a full-blown college campus in their city," said Rio Rancho deputy Mayor David Williams, whose two daughters attend UNM.

Sandoval County commissioner David Bency said this project could have been started six years ago, but he was optimistic, nonetheless.

"I took a group of people from the city, from Highlands University and the public schools, and we went to Rogers University, (near Tulsa) eight years ago - and we tried to get it done and it didn't happen," Bency said. "Maybe that's just too early."

Like Carraro, Bency, who teaches accounting at CNM, wasn't about to guarantee voter approval.

"I can't speak for the voters," he said. "The problem is, you have a special assessment district going in north of Northern (Boulevard) right now that's going to raise those people's taxes already to pay for that special assessment district and I fear if you stack this on top of that, that's a polluting factor.

Rio Rancho voters never fail to pass school bond issues, Bency was reminded.

"They do. That's a good thing," he said. "Now, it's about time."