President finalists to be announced next month

The UNM Presidential Search Committee is ready to name semi-finalists in the search for UNM’s next president, and University officials said finalists will do on-campus visits before winter break. Helen Gonzales, vice president for human resources, told the Board of Regents at the board’s meeting Tuesday that the Presidential Search Committee hopes to publicly announce the finalists by December and fly them to UNM to meet with students groups, faculty and staff.

“Because of the large number of presidential searches across the country and in the west, we’re trying to get ahead of the curve and bring finalists to campus before winter break,” Gonzales said.
“It’s an aggressive timeline, and we’ll be able to hopefully announce that within the next few days.”

Gonzales said the committee values student input and will work to accommodate students’ final exam schedules so they can meet with finalists.

Also at the meeting:
Regents discuss (un)Occupy protesters

UNM President David Schmidly said UNMPD spent $15,000 paying officers overtime to handle the (un)Occupy Albuquerque protesters’ occupation of UNM Campus. Protesters have been occupying campus for the past six weeks.

UNMPD spokesman Lt. Robert Haarhues said the money came out of UNMPD’s operating budget.

“We’re going to have to keep a watch on our operating budget as we grind through the fiscal year and hope we’ll be all right at the end of the year,” he said.

Schmidly said protesters currently have a permit, which they must renew weekly, to occupy Yale Park from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

Katie Richardson, GPSA president, asked regents on behalf of the GPSA to allow protesters to be on campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“The First Amendment does not have a closing time,” she said. “The First Amendment is 24 hours a day.”

Amy Neel, the Faculty Senate’s president-elect, said the Faculty Senate will consider a resolution regarding (un)Occupy Albuquerque at its meeting on Nov. 22.