Letter: UNM budget cuts should come from well-paid 'Bobs'

Editor,

Governor Susana Martinez’s plan to reduce funding to UNM has resulted in another budget shortfall. The deficit has already resulted in faculty and staff hiring freezes with an additional upcoming round of staff cuts. As students you can see this with increased class sizes, less staff on campus and a 2.5 percent tuition hike.

It is the withering of the university life, as students, staff and faculty are asked to do more with less. All this news was meekly reported by UNM President Frank, who soon after announced his presidency will end with his contract in the spring.

However this will not be a retirement for Robert “Bob” Frank.

Bob will take a new position on North Campus — which coincidentally is not subjected to the hiring freeze. His salary will be $350,000. Bob is taking a paycut, a reduction from his current salary of $362,000. A little less money, but Bob doesn’t have to worry, he knows that he has a job at the end of the spring semester.

Compare Bob’s salary to the average salary for New Mexico. This amounts to $24,000, which is what most of the Class of 2017 will make if they can find a job. At this rate, new graduates must work for 15 years to equate the salary that Bob will make in one year.

But there are even more Bobs. Football coach Robert Edwin “Bob” Davie makes $760,000 a year. Graduates would have to work 30 years to equate what that Bob makes in one year. Does it require a high six-figure salary to fill these jobs? How much expertise is required to broker a sour deal to rename the Pit to the Pizza Parlor? How high of a salary is required to blow a 4th quarter lead and lose to the Aggies?

Enough with these rich Bobs. The body of the University has been bled dry. If the University must continue making cuts it must look to the bloated budgets of these Bobs.

There is hope. With the role of the presidency opening up, perhaps there might be a candidate among us who can set things right. We are here, at a university, for the exchange of ideas. We are not a business nor are we a sports team. We cannot invest so much of our resources in overestimates of ticket and licensing revenue. We can return the emphasis back to university life.

The future president that makes these decisions will be unpopular with the Board of Regents, but you will have the student, faculty, and staff support. You will be doing the right thing, and righting the wrongs of these Bobs and others.

Daniel Barto

UNM student