Outgoing UNM President Bill Gordon told the Faculty Senate Tuesday that he is proud of the strides the University made during his tenure but remains concerned about its limited resources.
Gordon, who announced during Spring Break that he was leaving the University after four years as president to take over as provost of his alma mater, Wake Forrest University, offered what he called his candid take on UNM.
One positive note, Gordon said, was the University's efficient use of limited funds.
"When you look at the resources and what we end up doing, no one would have expected it to reach the level it has," he said.
Gordon cited other encouraging observations, including the University's national recognition as a research institution, improvements in freshman retention during the past five years that he called a "miracle," achievement of equilibrium with regard to enrollment - eliminating unexpected peaks and valleys - and vast improvements to the University's facility infrastructure.
With regard to research, Gordon said he was especially pleased that the University's achievements involved work from a full range of departments.
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One final accomplishment he said he's seen is University's involvement in the city and state.
"I don't think UNM has ever had the visibility and impact it has now out in the community," he said. "There's a lot of emphasis on the role of UNM in economic development. People in the community and state know what we're doing out there."
The increased presence, he said, has resulted in a 40 percent increase in donations in the last two years.
He said he saw several weaknesses that could prove to be stumbling blocks in the future, including lack of resources compared to other state universities of similar size, a lack of foresight and planning with regard to information technology such as computer and library systems and a murky concept of the mission and goals of UNM's graduate programs.
Leadership of graduate studies was continually "flip-flopping between departments," he said. "I don't think that's healthy."
Similarly, the state's goals for UNM and higher education in general were in a constant state of flux, he said.
Annually the state rotates graduate students, undergraduate students and community outreach as the prime function of the University, he said.
"The state needs an agenda," Gordon said. "UNM's role needs to be clearly defined."
He said lack of centralized resources for university-wide goals such as freshman learning communities, and a cumbersome branch government structure were other problems the future president would have to contend with.
In closing, he urged members of the Senate to set aside opinions about what their peers did or said and instead to focus on how well they do their jobs.
"People can have very different ideas about how to proceed but that doesn't mean their motives are bad," he said. "If I could snap my fingers and one thing would change, it would be that."
During the same meeting, senators wrangled over language in revisions to the University's research misconduct policy, which lays out the procedure for investigating claims of data fabrication, plagiarism or other problems with research projects.
The policy, which Research Policy Committee Chairperson Virginia Seiser said has been years in the making, was revised after first being presented to the Faculty Senate in March.
English professor Hugh Witemeyer, who is president of the UNM chapter of the American Association of University Professors, distributed a memorandum outlining problems several faculty members had with the policy. The association believes that the policy, as written, gives too much influence on the outcome of investigations to University administration, and fails to guarantee accused researchers adequate due process, according to the memo.
"Faculty should have the primary responsibility for the conduct of investigations," Witemeyer said.
Seiser said those who drafted the policy sought plenty of faculty input and that if the policy wasn't approved, the federal government would eventually impose one of its own.
The policy was eventually passed by 15 senators, with 12 voting against and 3 abstaining. Faculty senate president John Geissman assured concerned senators that revising the policy remains a possibility.
