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Presidential candidate David Schmidly talks at a meeting with students in the SUB Ballroom on Tuesday.
Presidential candidate David Schmidly talks at a meeting with students in the SUB Ballroom on Tuesday.

Meet the Presidential Candidates: David Schmidly

This concludes the five-part series on presidential candidates

by Caleb Fort

Daily Lobo

David Schmidly, the final presidential candidate to visit UNM, met with students, staff and

faculty Tuesday.

Schmidly has been the president and CEO of the Oklahoma State University System since 2002.

The regents will name the president by Feb. 23.

Here's a look at each of Schmidly's meetings:

Students

Less than 20 students met with Schmidly.

He discussed student participation and how to increase graduation and retention rates.

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Schmidly said he tries to interact with students as much as possible.

"If I do come here, one of the first things I'll do is have a student town hall meeting," he said. "We will fill this place (the SUB Ballroom) with students and talk for hours about what students want."

Schmidly tries to reserve a few hours every month to meet with students, he said. Students at Oklahoma State could sign up for the 20-minute appointments on his Web site.

He would have a similar system at UNM, he said.

"It's amazing what you can learn from students," he said. "You young people really know what's happening on a campus. I want people to believe that if they see something they would like to be going differently, they can go see that old man, and he'll try to do something about it."

The only thing Schmidly said he doesn't want students to bring to the meetings are complaints about grades.

"If you get a C, and you think it should have been a B, don't come see me," he said. "Take that to the professors and the chairs and the deans."

Schmidly said it is important for UNM to increase its graduation rates.

Oklahoma State has a program in which students who barely meet entrance requirements take their first 24 credits at a community college.

"The idea was to get a better student in our regular classroom, and at the same time, make sure the needy had the tools to succeed," he said.

Schmidly said he would be an advantage to students.

"One of the things that I feel responsible for as the president of an institution is the value of your diploma," he said. "I think you would benefit from an experienced president - one who has done it and made it work."

Staff

Schmidly met with about 100 staff members to talk about diversity, marketing and the importance of keeping staff happy.

Cinnamon Blair, marketing manager at UNM, asked Schmidly how important it was to have a defined image for the University.

"If you don't brand well, you won't market well," Schmidly said. "Everyone in business knows that. We're not a business, but we are in the business of creating students, and you need an image to do that effectively."

Schmidly said he has helped create slogans for use on billboards and other advertisements.

Schmidly said he meets regularly with staff members to discuss policy changes. The Staff Council can request policy changes through him, he said.

After he discusses the ideas with other administrators, he gives the staff members a written description of why he did or did not grant their requests.

"I have not done everything the staff asked me to," he said. "But I think the staff feel that every recommendation they've brought to me has been honestly considered."

Schmidly said he sends an e-mail to everyone at Oklahoma State every Monday.

"That kind of gets the week off to a good start," he said. "I let people know what the plan is for the week, and it makes things more personal."

Schmidly would meet with UNM's Staff Council to discuss what he could do to improve staff members' quality of life.

"I know that all of you will say parking," he said. "I've been here a day and a half, and I can see that you're parking challenged."

He would also try to get better medical benefits for staff members, he said.

"There is nothing more tragic in an organization than to have people who can't afford health care for their families," he said.

Schmidly said universities need to have diverse faculty, staff and students.

"You cannot have a modern educational environment and produce the kinds of students you need to be if you don't have a diverse atmosphere," he said. "The way you do that is about two things. Don't make excuses - be accountable - and make diversity your No. 1 priority."

Faculty

More than 100 faculty members attended the meeting with Schmidly.

Schmidly spoke about his vision for UNM, tenure and the role faculty should play in shaping University policy.

Schmidly said UNM should take advantage of its diversity and resources.

"The vision that I would see emerging here is one built around the theme of excellence," he said.

The president should not be responsible for defining the direction of the University, he said.

"Presidents can't create visions," he said. "Presidents create conversations and dialogue about where the institution should be heading."

Defining the goals of the University should be a top priority, he said.

"As the famous philosopher Yogi Berra said, if you don't know where you're going, you might not get there," he said.

Schmidly said faculty members should play a large part in creating University policy.

"I think it's totally appropriate for faculty to recommend policy, and I would be shocked if they didn't," he said. "You have to have a good communication with faculty, and they have to know that you want their voice."

When Schmidly rejects proposals from faculty members, he meets with them to tell them why, he said.

"Oftentimes, they show me the errors in the way I was thinking about it," he said. "Most of the time, we come to a pretty solid agreement through the process of shared governance."

Virginia Shipman, president of Faculty Senate, asked what Schmidly thought about the erosion of tenure.

Schmidly said he doesn't think tenure is threatened.

"If you come strictly from the business world - people change jobs so quickly and things change so quickly in this modern world that a lot of people might not understand tenure," he said.

Regularly reviewing tenured faculty members is a good way to alleviate those concerns, he said.

Schmidly said one of his first priorities would be to create a division of institutional diversity headed by a vice president with the goal of getting more minorities in faculty and upper-level administrative positions.

"Without question, it will be a major goal," he said. "I think it will be easier in many ways here than at other institutions I've been at. You already have diverse students. That will make it easier to attract diversity in other areas."

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