Faculty: Penalize absent teachers

The Faculty Senate passed a resolution last week to create a harsher disciplinary system for faculty who violate University policy.

Faculty Senate President Richard Wood announced the measure at the Board of Regents Audit Committee meeting Thursday. The University has no system in place to punish minor faculty offenses, Wood said, and the measure would increase accountability for faculty who commit minor breaches of policy.

“Rules for strong disciplinary violations exist, but a good policy for addressing less severe offenses does not,” he said.

The measure will go before the board for approval in May.

Wood said the policy would set disciplinary standards for teachers who consistently miss class or abuse University funds. Wood said the policy includes possible pay reductions for teachers who violate University policy. He said a committee would examine each infraction individually.
“It’s a progressive discipline system, meaning initial measures are smaller but would increase with severity,” he said.

Student Amanda Garcia said the disciplinary system doesn’t address broader issues among UNM faculty. She said the overall quality of instruction at UNM is poor, especially in lower-level classes.

“My classes this semester are so much better than the 100 and 200 levels I was taking last year,” she said. “It’s not that the professors or TA’s did anything wrong; they just weren’t good at teaching.”

Garcia said the disciplinary system doesn’t matter to her if it won’t translate into better instruction.

“The students just want to be taught,” she said. “They want some way of getting rid of bad teachers, and I feel like those evaluation forms we get at the end of the year don’t do anything.”