by Richard M. Berthold
Daily Lobo Columnist
Bill Gordon is gone now, off to be provost and no doubt soon president of Wake Forest University.
He was probably the best we could do: unlike most he was a long-time faculty member at UNM and appeared to have some genuine concern for students and faculty (though most of the innovations in undergraduate teaching should be credited to University College dean Peter White.) On the other hand, he was not completely honest and clearly would not stand up for his beliefs if it meant any sort of confrontation, especially with the regents.
The Board of Regents, who hires and can summarily fire the president, is in fact at the heart of the problem. It is and has been (at least since I have been here) composed of businessmen, attorneys and aspiring or ex-politicians who seem to have absolutely no idea what a university is and simply look at it as another business or political fief. Some, such as Richard Toliver, are unable even to grasp the meaning of free speech, which is at the very core of the University, and are quick to appease the community rather than defending the principles of the University.
So, for the sixth time in little more than a quarter century UNM is again searching for a president. The revolving-door presidency is unfortunately becoming more and more a part of the American university, especially at less prestigious schools like UNM. There is a growing class of professional university CEOs, individuals, like former UNM President Richard Peck, who have no local ties and simply move from institution to institution seeking greater status and higher salaries.
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This process has been aided and abetted by the regents and economic and political powers in the state, who apparently feel - compliant Bill Gordon notwithstanding - that only someone from outside New Mexico has the class and ability to run our University. And he must be paid an immense amount of money because in the minds of many the greatness of a university is reflected in the greatness of the president's salary (and the success of its football and basketball programs, but we can't do much about that.) These same wise men are now saying that market forces are also at play and that we cannot possible acquire a decent president for less than $350,000 to $400,000.
Really? I find it hard to believe that there is no competent person with academic administrative experience in New Mexico who would serve as president for the roughly $200,000 we now pay. Bill Gordon once told me he would do the job for three-quarters of what he was being paid, and he is now being praised to high heaven. How tough can it be? George Bush is apparently able to govern the United States, which is certainly a much more complex institution than UNM, and persons of his level of intellect and ability can be found all over the place.
And the market forces argument is simply a cover for the fact that the wealthy universities are paying their presidents more and more as a reflection of their status, leading potential candidates at other institutions to demand more, if for no other reason to demonstrate that they are indeed first rate material.
To the regents, anyone willing to take the job for a mere $200,000 must by definition be of inferior quality. It is revealing that the growing talk about being competitive in our outlay for a president does not seem to be matched with an equal concern that we become competitive in our compensation for faculty and staff, who are clearly more important to the University than any of the denizens of Scholes Hall.
UNM is in fact simply reflecting American business, which is hardly surprising considering the composition of the Board of Regents. The gap between the compensation of workers (faculty and staff) and executives (the president) is constantly growing, as the size and salaries of the administration continue to increase at a rate far greater than that of the rest of the University community. The president's salary is approaching a quarter-million dollars, while the average faculty salary (outside medicine and law) remains less than about a quarter of that. Gordon's touted gesture of taking percentage raises no bigger than the faculty received ignored a basic math fact: one percent of $200,000 is still almost five times one percent of $45,000.
So, we will jack up the salary and go through an expensive search and then hire Chris Garcia, who has displayed the expected show of reluctance, which will enhance his image of self-sacrifice and duty when he actually accepts the permanent job. But then in so many ways he is an excellent choice: he has spent a lot of time at UNM; he has experience with business and the real world, from whom he will need to panhandle money; he is reasonably honest; he is not just Hispanic, but the right kind (not Caribbean; ask Maestro Figueroa about that) for the racists of the Hispanic Round Table; and most important, other Regents like him.
We could do a lot worse. Remember Richard Peck. A lot worse.
