Frank visits his alma matter

Presidential Finalist and UNM alum Robert Frank said Monday that he supports living wages for graduate and teaching assistants, even though he refused to support collective bargaining for graduate assistantships at Kent State University, where he is provost.

Forty percent of UNM classes are taught by graduate teaching assistants at UNM, and 40 percent of UNM graduate students depend on either teaching or graduate assistant positions to continue their education, but GPSA Council Chair Megan O’Laughlin said these student workers are not considered legal employees on campus.

Frank said at his on-campus forum Monday he has been “supportive, active and engaged” in conversations around student stipends and graduate student support at Kent State and would continue that engagement at UNM.

Frank said he values the role of student protests on campus .He said he risked getting tear gassed on his way to class at UNM during protests in the ‘70s.

“On every campus we have issues of free speech, people exerting their liberties – and the university is the place where we should hold sacred those values,” Frank said. “The president’s role is to realize tensions between different stakeholders who may have different opinions about that and find a way for people to express their views in a peaceful and thoughtful manner.”

Frank said it is important to create a standard for advising across the University so that students are able to successfully plan their degrees. He said his son will graduate from Kent State with 20 more hours than he needs because of problems his son had with advisement.

“You’d think they’d want to impress me, so if that’s my son’s world, what about other students?” he said.

Frank said he would work to create partnerships between UNM and other state universities.

“We now live in a world where the state prospers by the growth of the higher education enterprise,” he said. “We need to partner with other universities at the state level to create a knowledge-driven economy that will support the entire state and make a difference in New Mexico.”