Q & A

Daily Lobo: What is the

main purpose of the graduation

task force?

Reed Dasenbrock: UNM, historically,

has had very low graduation

rates when compared to

other institutions in the area,

such as the University of Arizona

and the University of Colorado.

The average six-year graduation

rate is 60 percent, and UNM

has a rate in the 40s. Most fulltime

freshmen here at UNM do

not graduate with a degree from

UNM in hand in six years, and

this is not acceptable. We need

to get the rate up, and make

sure that whatever barriers are

in place within the system are

looked at.

DL: How did the idea of the

task force get started?

RD: We've been doing a lot of

things already, such as the freshman

learning communities, over

the past several years. They have

done a lot with freshmen-sophomore

retention rates. We're adding

advisers and attempting to do

a lot more with advising. So there

are a lot of parts of the picture

that people are already working

on. There are efforts in departments

like psychology, chemistry

and biology to rethink their curriculums

and make them work

better, but there has not been

somebody up a few thousand feet

looking at all these efforts and

seeing how they fit together and

also what's missing. The primary

task of this group is not to change

or oversee or modify the good

efforts under way, but to try to

bring them together into a common

framework.

DL: Why do you think the

task force will be successful?

RD: I think it's going to be successful,

because when you have a

lot of smart people in a room, they

come up with good ideas. The success

will not be just when the task

force makes a good recommendation,

but when we identify the

resources and the organizational

structures for people to implement

things. So there are two

stages, the first one is diagnosis,

and the other is action.

DL: How long do you expect

to wait before you see

results?

RD: We're already seeing results

from a lot of things that have already

begun. This is not a matter of

taking antibiotics and two days later

you're going to feel better. This

is a matter of continuous improvement.

In 2006, more people graduated

from UNM than in the history

of the University, so we know

we're headed in the right path. So

it's really more a question of turbocharging

the improvements we're

already seeing. In the next year, I

hope they come up with a number

of fairly simple ideas that they can

implement right away. We also

know there are big structural issues

- for example, if you are

borrowing money to go to school.

Can UNM single-handedly change

the landscape in which you borrow

money to go to school? The

answer is no, but we do know that

debt is sometimes a factor in degree

prevention.

DL: What is the biggest

challenge to succeed?

RD: I think the biggest challenge

is the issue of why students

choose to come to school, and how

prepared they are when they come.

The economic issues are very large

social issues, and it also has to do

with attitudes and culture.

- Eric Pacheco