A recent survey of UNM faculty and staff showed a slight increase in satisfaction with University administration, but there’s still room for improvement.
The number of faculty and staff “dissatisfied” with University governance dropped by almost 6 percent, and UNM President David Schmidly said the change is a step in the right direction.
“I am pleased that the survey shows incremental progress has been made, even though there is still a long way to go,” he said in a June 6 email. “The recent budget process created a lot of positive momentum, and I am committed to seeing that forward progress continues.”
Still, the majority of faculty and staff remain displeased. Sixty percent of faculty and 48 percent of staff responded either “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” when asked to rate their overall satisfaction with their role in shared governance.
An unnamed faculty member wrote in the survey, “My perception is that ‘shared governance’ is an empty phrase at UNM. Faculty continue to have little substantive input on important concerns regarding academic programs, the proper functions of a research university and budgetary matters. Lip service is given to the idea by the Central Administration, but faculty views are rarely considered seriously or implemented.”
Many faculty comments referenced dissatisfaction with the Board of Regents. One comment read, “Removal of the regent system would be a good first step.”
According to the survey, just 7 percent of faculty members agree that an atmosphere of trust exists between the faculty and Central Administration.
Faculty Senate President-elect Tim Ross said he took the survey and thought the results accurately reflected a small improvement.
“Any time there’s an improvement, whether it’s small or large, it’s positive,” he said.
Staff Council President Mary Clark said any improvements were a result of efforts by the Staff Council, not UNM’s administration.
“I think it’s entirely to do with Staff Council’s communication with staff because communication from Scholes Hall didn’t change,” she said. “It’s also been a very difficult year because President Schmidly’s illness took him away from campus, so any opportunity for increased communication from Scholes Hall was hindered.”
An unnamed staff member wrote in the survey, “With the events of the past few years, it seems that staff members are the first to be sacrificed. We are not getting raises, but we are taking on additional duties.”
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Clark said staff members have serious concerns about changes to their retirement and benefit plans, and most don’t even know who University administration is.
“There’s still too much of a disconnect between senior administration and staff, and by that I mean I’m not sure your average staff person knows who is in charge of the University and what the regents do,” she said.
The survey was conducted by the Higher Learning Commission as a follow-up to a survey conducted in 2010 in the wake of 2009’s “no confidence” votes. More than 2,000 faculty and staff members participated in the online survey.
