Regents approve annual work plan

UNM President David Schmidly is promising to tackle low graduation rates, get faculty involved in big decisions and do some major fundraising this year.

The Board of Regents approved Schmidly’s annual work plan at its meeting Aug. 10. He said the more than $30 million in state funding cut from UNM may hinder some of his work plan goals, including hiring new tenure-track faculty and keeping class sizes low.

“We’re not able to add faculty to the extent our enrollment is growing,” Schmidly said. “That’s probably our biggest challenge.”
He said the University’s academic mission is his first priority, but further budget cuts could lead to layoffs and furloughs.
“We’re trying to do the things that protect the academic mission of the institution to the extent we can,” he said. “So far, we’ve done it without layoffs, furloughs or salary reductions. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to do that, but if there are any more cuts, we just can’t make promises.”

Schmidly said UNM may also have to eliminate some classes and programs if UNM’s budget is cut again.
“We may have to look hard at some of the programs that haven’t been very productive,” he said.

UNM’s four-year graduation rate is only 13.2 percent — something Schmidly said will also be a major focus in the coming year. He said an increase of advisers last year may lead to higher graduation rates this year.

“Sometimes it takes more than one year for an action to create change,” he said. “I’m hopeful that this year we might see a bounce up in some of those (graduation) numbers as a result of what we did last year.”

Schmidly said the state legislature may also soon start funding universities based on graduation rates. Based on its funding formula in place now, the state gives extra funding to universities that increase their enrollment by 3 percent or more.
“I think there is a move to look at different ways of funding higher education,” he said.

Raymond Sanchez, Board of Regents president, said another of Schmidly’s goals — accountability — will help clarify how faculty should be involved in decision-making processes at UNM. The faculty senate voted no confidence in Schmidly’s leadership in February 2009. Now, Schmidly will work on a “shared governance matrix” with faculty that lays out how faculty can participate in decision making, according to his work plan.

“I believe he is going to do other things that will help the faculty feel more comfortable with him in the future,” Sanchez said.
Schmidly said he will also create focus groups with faculty to better involve them in budget planning.

“The big concern seems to be on the budget, so we are going to do all we can to involve the faculty in all crucial decisions with regard to the budget,” he said.

Schmidly said he will also focus on fundraising to offset the budget cuts. Last year, UNM raised $75.1 million in private funds. This year, UNM’s fundraising department, the UNM Foundation, hopes to raise $675 million.

“Obviously, the more private resources we can raise, the better we’ll be able to serve students and faculty,” he said. “Our goal with the fundraising will be to increase support for students and faculty.”