Last week I read an article in the Albuquerque Journal that stated one in four UNM freshmen from 2010 did not return to the University to continue his or her studies in 2011.
I thought to myself, “Hey, this is not good news for UNM. I wonder what Schmidly’s administration has to say about this, and even more importantly, what are they going to do to keep freshmen in school?”
Further in the article there was a response by Terry Babbitt, the associate vice president of Enrollment Management, and his response did not surprise me. He said that it was likely a consequence of last fall’s record-size freshman class, which was less prepared for college-level work.
That’s cool. Blame the retention problem on the poor-performing student, and that way you do not have to do anything to correct this situation. It gets even better: Later on in the article, Babbitt states that the two personnel who let all of these poor-performing students get into UNM (the former provost and past vice president of enrollment) have since left for other jobs.
For those in the general public who do not believe that it is entirely the poor-performing student’s fault, again, those who share responsibility for this situation are gone, and the problem is solved. The final piece of the Schmidly administration’s politically correct, male-bovine-piece-of-fecal-matter response is that these senior personnel acted alone when they changed admissions policies, and the great Schmidly did not order this change in policy.
The one thing that I learned from this response is that at least Schmidly’s administration is consistent. That is, it has the same amount of contempt for the general public of New Mexico as it does for the faculty, staff and students at UNM.
A positive point that I saw from this article was that the Albuquerque Journal also interviewed Interim Provost Chaouki Abdallah. He stated that he felt academic preparation isn’t the only factor that influences retention. He is an engineer, and engineers like to know the facts before they comment on a topic.
This is different from the rest of Schmidly’s administration, which pulls fecal matter from its rectum. What he said was true; there is not a single reason why approximately 900 students did not return for their sophomore year. There are probably three to four top reasons.
To me, it sounded like he had some ideas, but he wanted more information before he developed and presented a path forward. From the article, I also got the feeling that he had students in mind. He said there are also economic or family situations that can contribute to student decisions to not come back. He further stated UNM is evaluating programs to address those students’ needs.
Again, it sounded like he had some ideas as to why students don’t come back, and it also sounded like he had some solutions that could be put in place to raise the freshman retention rate at UNM. If he could put in place a cost-effective program that would address one or two of the reasons why freshman aren’t coming back and maybe keep an additional 100-150 or so students in school, that would be real progress.
It is unreal to expect that the University can retain all of its freshmen, but it has to retain more than it is now.
From what I read, I am starting to respect Chaouki Abdallah. He appears to be different from the rest of Schmidly’s administration in that he wants to tell the truth, and he also has the students’ better interests in mind. We will see how long he lasts.
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