Sunshine Frequently Asked Questions

Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico is UNM's version of a transparency portal that allows public online access to view UNM spending, budgets, revenues, employee salaries, purchase order information and more. This portal is designed to foster governmental transparency and accountability that proactively addresses the spirit of the requirements in New Mexico Senate Bill 195.

The Sunshine Portal has been tested successfully on the following browsers:

Mozilla Firefox 18+
Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer 11 (disable Compatibility View)
Google Chrome 26+

To benchmark your browser, use Octane. For the best experience with Sunshine, your Octane score should be 15,000 or greater.

Internet connections that deliver at least 12 Mbps downstream provide the best experience. Avoid using slower connections like dial up or older generation cellular technologies (like EDGE and 3G).

For best performance, the latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are highly recommended.

Yes, the Sunshine Portal reports will work fine with a Mac. The reports are compatible with Safari version 8 and above as well as Chrome and Firefox.

To benchmark your browser and hardware combination, use Octane. For the best experience with Sunshine, your Octane score should be 15,000 or greater.

Internet connections that deliver at least 12 Mbps downstream provide the best experience. Avoid using slower connections like dial up or older generation cellular technologies (like EDGE and 3G).

For best performance, the latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are highly recommended.

Yes, Sunshine uses a responsive framework and works properly on most modern mobile devices. For the best experience, a screen size of 10" or greater is recommended.

If you are accessing Sunshine from a mobile device, consider using Google Chrome instead of your OS's onboard browser.

To benchmark your browser, use Octane. For the best experience with Sunshine, your Octane score should be 15,000 or greater.

Internet connections that deliver at least 12 Mbps downstream provide the best experience. Avoid using slower connections like dial up or older generation cellular technologies (like EDGE and 3G).

No training is available for Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico. The navigation of reports is very easy and self-explanatory.

Individuals with a current "Order of Protection" on file at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Police Department may be excluded, upon request, from the Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico and/or the UNM Directory of names. Requests for exclusion will only be considered when an "Order of Protections" is on file and will be reviewed on an individual basis. To be considered for exclusion, employees with an "Order of Protection" should deliver or fax their "Order of Protection" to UNM Police Dispatch. They are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and are located at the West end of Hokona Hall at 2500 Campus Blvd. N.E. The fax number is 505-277-8421. If accepted, the employee will be removed during the next update. Updates occur once a month. If employees have an updated "Order of Protection" they must follow the same process to ensure continued exclusion. If an "Order of Protection" is not renewed, the employees information will be placed back in Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico and/or the UNM Directory of Names.

The annual salary is based on UNM's fiscal year (July 1st through June 30th) and is based on rate of pay times appointment percentage.

The appointment percentage represents the full-time equivalence (F.T.E.) for an employee’s job assignment. An appointment percentage of 100 means the employee is full time; an appointment percentage of 50 means the employee is half-time.

No. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law intended to protect student information. Although the student privacy law is intended to protect enrollment and academic information, student earnings through financial aid work study programs are included in the protection. It is less clear whether graduate student workers under contract are included, but the University errs on the side of caution. If people have University employment by virtue of their status as a student, then that student employment information is protected. If a student is also a UNM Faculty or Staff member, then the Faculty or Staff employment information WILL appear in Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico.

Salary grades provide a framework for staff compensation and reflect the University of New Mexico’s pay policy relative to the market and internal equity.

The initial information is displayed by employee name. In order to view the information by Job Title, you must use the "Type a job title to filter" box at the top right corner of the data table. The filter allows you to enter specific Job Titles and will then show the information that you are expecting.

The information in the Sunshine Portal is updated as follows:

Salary Book: Monthly (5th day of each month at 6:15 PM Mountain)
Purchase Orders Greater than $20,000 by Vendor: Weekly (each Thursday at 7:15 PM Mountain)
Proposed Sole Source Purchases: As needed
Emergency Procurements: As needed

If you are experiencing technical difficulties with Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico, please provide details the UNM IT Service Desk via Help.UNM or by calling 505-277-5757. We will review the details of the problem that you report to determine if we need to make a system correction or update the frequently asked questions. Thank you for your assistance. Please note that we will not be able to respond individually to reported technical issues or answer to questions about site content.