by Richard Berthold
Daily Lobo guest columnist
Even though we will never know precisely why former UNM President Louis Caldera "resigned" - since the reason apparently has something to with national security and is classified - his expensive departure illustrates the basic problem with the University: the regents.
Regents are political appointees - which means friends and supporters of the governor, which in turn means they are virtually all attorneys and businessmen, who seemingly have no idea whatsoever that the University is something other than a bank or a car dealership. The appointment of Don Chalmers, in fact, underscores a suspicion among newcomers to the state that you must own a car dealership to serve on the Board of Regents, which indeed used to allow dealers to sell cars on campus.
Viewing the University primarily as a business, the regents are obsessed with administrative organization, which accounts in part for the constant increase in administrators and their power and salaries. This is, after all, only a reflection of what is happening in the business world, and the disparity between Caldera's or David Harris' compensation and that of a faculty or staff member reminds one of CEOs' income contrasted with their employees'.
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Acting President David Harris stated faculty compensation was a top priority for the Legislature, precisely the same thing UNM presidents were saying when I joined the faculty in the 1970s. "Next year, Jerusalem." Of course, it took the Jews 2000 years to fulfill that dream.
And immediately on the heels of this promise, Harris got down to the real work of reorganizing the administration, creating a vice president for Human Resources, an associate vice president for Government and Community Relations and a government affairs specialist. The salaries paid these indispensable individuals would fund a half dozen full-time faculty.
As an example of the same foolishness on a smaller scale, consider Zimmerman Library. This utterly critical part of UNM, the heart of the University, cannot afford to buy new books and - so Zimmerman staff tell me - is dramatically understaffed and is under a hiring freeze. Still, funding was somehow found to hire two new administrative assistants, which is what you call a secretary who works for an administrator.
Or how about a variation on this business-political model of governance? UNM Hospital has some serious problems, and how are they dealt with? Fire anyone who complains and hire Billy Sparks, a public relations expert who apparently comes out of the same state bin as Harris. This is contemporary America - it does not matter if something is actually good so long as it looks good.
Incidentally, while the University can afford to give Caldera a $700,000 send-off, it is generally so delinquent in paying its bills that some vendors are reluctant to do business with UNM. Perhaps we should sell the University to China or the United Arab Emirates.
I see no hope. The regents control directly and indirectly the complexion of the central administration and are not about to tolerate anyone who bucks their direction, as the abrupt termination of former President Tom Farer some two decades ago illustrated. Reed Dasenbrock, one of the candidates for provost, is clearly aware of this - in his meeting with faculty last Thursday, he assured us that the regents are our friends and care about us and the University.
Faculty - those who did not burst out laughing at Dasenbrock's comments - are partly to blame for the situation inasmuch as they for the most part refuse to do anything serious to improve their lot. It appears that any action beyond committees, polite memos and resolutions are considered unprofessional, as I was so considered by many for labeling administrative jerks with less-than-polite terms.
The faculty could start by refusing to serve as window dressing on all these administrative search committees and thus providing the searches and their results an air of legitimacy. Faculty must demand a real say in the decisions or refuse to collaborate.
The faculty could employ one of their few theoretically real powers and refuse to grant degrees unless their grievances were seriously addressed. I am sure Scholes Hall would just pass out the degrees anyway, but the administration sure would look a bit stupid and incompetent - not that such appearances seem to matter in America anymore.
Even better, get organized and get armed.
