by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Meredith Hay, the second of five presidential candidates to visit UNM, spoke with students, staff and faculty Thursday.
Candidate Herman Lujan will visit UNM on Tuesday.
Here's a look at each of Hay's meetings:
Students
Hay met with about 30 students at the SUB.
She discussed making campus family friendly, the role students play in leading the University and how to take advantage of UNM's diversity.
She said that although UNM prides itself on being diverse, it does not reap enough benefits from that.
"I think one of your greatest strengths is your complexity and diversity," she said. "It's an extraordinary asset that hasn't really been leveraged. It could be a great tool for promoting the University and recruiting students and employees."
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One student asked Hay how she could make UNM more accessible to students with children.
Hay said people are the University's most important resource.
"I know it sounds trite, but hopefully, I can convince you that I really mean it," she said. "Anything we can do to give students productive family lives as well as productive professional lives is very important, and we should examine every opportunity we have to do that."
Students should play a central role in leading the University, Hay said.
"I look for the student leadership to be very involved with the leadership of the University and involved in the vision," she said. "Oftentimes, in my experience, it's the students' vision and energy that keeps the University moving forward."
Leaders of student government would participate in University budget and policy meetings, as well as give ideas to the administration for improving UNM, she said.
Staff
Hay met with about 100 staff members in the SUB to discuss her leadership style, why she wants to be president and how much power the staff should have.
Staff members should be treated as an important part of the University, Hay said.
"My philosophy is that staff are the backbone of the institution," she said. "I am wed in my very bone marrow to the idea of shared governance, where the voice of the staff is as strong as that of the faculty and students."
Hay said she wants to be UNM's president because of the University's potential.
She likes that UNM focuses on sciences and humanities, she said.
"I think that you're at a tipping point," she said. "You are at a point where you could do more than you can imagine - maybe more than you can dream possible."
The University should do everything it can to pay staff members as much as they deserve, she said.
"It is absolutely essential to the success and growth of an institution to fully fund raises for staff and have a transparent discussion about that," she said.
Graduate student Michelle Touson, a staff member for African-American Student Services, asked Hay what she would do to increase the diversity of students, faculty and staff at the University.
Hay said she would have to examine why UNM is not as diverse as it could be.
"I have to understand what has happened in the past here," she said. "From what I see, the students seem to reflect fairly well the demographics of the state, but it doesn't seem to be that way with faculty. I don't know why that is."
Not getting enough minority applicants for faculty positions is not an excuse, she said.
"If that's the answer you're getting every time, you need to step back and examine your search process," she said.
One option for getting more minority faculty would be for the administration to give departments money for each minority they hired, she said.
Faculty
About 80 faculty members attended the meeting with Hay.
She said she spent months researching UNM in preparation for her visit.
"What was obviously missing was a clear, articulated vision of what the University of New Mexico is, who you are, and where you want the University to be going," she said. "Talking to people and finding that out has got to be the first order of business."
UNM should be open to change, she said.
"What worked maybe 50 years ago and is maybe carved in stone in the operations manual might not be relevant today," she said. "It's fundamental and absolutely essential to find out what should be changing to move the institution forward. That's job No. 1 of any new president - to do exorbitant amounts of listening."
Virginia Shipman, president of Faculty Senate, asked Hay's opinion about the erosion of tenure.
Hay, a tenured faculty member, said tenure is central to maintaining intellectual independence.
"There seems to be this erosion of academic freedom, with the Patriot Act and other intrusions," she said. "Because of that, tenure is maybe more important than ever. But it should be reviewed. It's not a free ticket to the rest of your academic life. It's when you really should be starting to work."
Although it can be difficult to find funding to recruit top faculty while giving raises to existing faculty, the University has to find a way, she said.
"I wish I could say this was only a problem at the University of New Mexico," she said. "But what I will say is that recruitment and pay of the faculty should be as important or more important than recruitment and pay for a basketball coach."
One faculty member asked Hay how she would boost graduation rates while maintaining low admission standards.
Hay said there are no easy
answers.
"What I do have is a philosophy," she said. "I do not buy into the premise that access and excellence are mutually exclusive. I think it will take innovation to figure out how to have them
together."
Meredith Hay
Since June 2005, vice president for research at the University of Iowa, which received $360 million in external research funding during the past fiscal year.
Reports directly to the president.
Has served as assistant to the vice president for academic affairs at the University of Missouri System, director of the National Center for Gender Physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine and associate director of the University of Missouri Life Sciences Center.
Bachelor's in psychology from the University of Colorado.
Master's in neurobiology from the University of Texas-San Antonio.
Doctorate in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center.
Postdoctoral training in biophysics at the Baylor College of Medicine.
