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Well before the debate began over whether to build on the University of New Mexico's North Golf Course, alumni and regents say they had raised the need for a community for retired faculty and staff.

The UNM Alumni Association has discussed the idea of a retirement community with the Board of Regents for more than 15 years, officials say.

But one group that hasn't actively called for a retirement community is the retirees themselves.

Ilse Gay, the newly elected president of the UNM Retiree Association, said that of the association's 400 members she wasn't aware of anyone who expressed a need to have UNM construct a retirement community.

If the university were to build one, she said, it makes sense to have it close to the campus. Retirees could walk to Popejoy Hall or Johnson Gym and have access to other campus activities.

"The only way I could envision an effective UNM retirement village is the proximity to campus facilities; otherwise it's just a retirement community," she said.

Gay said the regents never approached the retiree association about the retirement community, but said her association shouldn't be involved until concrete plans are made.

"The first thing the university has to do is find a site for this place," she said. "Once the university has committed itself to the concept of a village and found a location, then the planning really starts. At that point, the retiree association can help."

Karen Abraham, executive director of the UNM Alumni Association, said the need for a retirement community has been discussed since the early 1990s.

"It has always been something the Alumni Association hoped the university would look at," she said.

In recent months, the Board of Regents has begun looking into the idea of constructing a retirement village for UNM alumni and retirees on the North Golf Course.

The idea has drawn fire from neighbors, who say they don't want the green space diminished.

Abraham said she doesn't know whether the drive for a retirement village came from the Alumni Association, but members have been bringing it up to the university as a viable project for 17 years.

She said the association has always thought that having retirees living in a community on campus would benefit its members.

"It makes all the sense in the world to have a retirement home to have some connection to the university," she said. "It has everything to do with productive living."

Abraham said having a retirement center at the university is not unusual. Across the country, retirement homes are sponsored by alumni associations and the universities.

"Every amenity you would want as you retire is part of what the university has. It makes good sense," she said.

Board of Regents President Jamie Koch said a retirement community at UNM would benefit the school's growing population of retirees, because the campus has much of what they are likely to want and need — not the least of which is quick access to UNM Hospital.