Provost Suzanne Ortega asserted the safety of graduate and teaching assistant positions Wednesday, despite rumors that these jobs would be among the first cut as UNM deals with the effects of the recession.
"I can't promise you, but we haven't reached a single scenario where we'll have to back out of our commitments to graduate students," Ortega said.
More than 50 graduate students attended the forum, arranged by the Graduate and Professional Students Association, to discuss the future of UNM's graduate programs in the face of the current economic crisis.
GPSA President Christopher Ramirez encouraged students to express concerns about the future of their programs through a question-and-answer session with administrators.
"We need students to take that next step, take a more active role and express their opinions and talk to their departments to make sure their voices are heard," he said. "Because if we don't, (the administration) is going to take that next step for us."
Ortega said the University's priorities are to protect employees and keep the cost of education affordable for students.
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She said the University will fulfill its commitment to graduate students regardless of economic uncertainty.
Charles Fleddermann, acting dean of Graduate Studies, said he wants UNM to remain an attractive destination for potential graduate students. To do that, the University must offer competitive assistant position salaries, he said.
"We are going to try and keep the number of assistantships the same," he said. "Losing graduate enrollment would have a much bigger impact. It would be a huge hit to lose any grad students."
Student Rebecca Vanucci said the grad students' concerns have long preceded the current economic crisis.
"I was really hoping they'd address how to put the focus back on instruction instead of this corporate model," she said. "The faculty, staff and students should be a united front to bring the focus back to the classroom."
Vanucci said graduate students are disheartened by the limited job opportunities available to them within their departments, which they see as caused by a lack of funding.
Ramirez said the University's administration needs to consider ways to increase the number of graduate-student employment opportunities and meet the administrative needs of the University.
"Every time I hear about a new vice president being hired at about $100,000 to $150,000 a year, I can't help but (wonder how) at $20,000 per stipend - how many graduate students could that have hired," he said.
