Baker visits UNM, said he hoped to make it a 'shining light for the rest of the country''

Presidential finalist Douglas Baker said during his on-campus forum Wednesday that recent NAACP complaints about discrimination against African Americans at UNM reflect bigger problems at the University.

“From what I read, the frustration of African-American students, faculty, and staff seems to be a subset of an inability of the organization to talk about hard stuff,” he said. “The feelings African-American students have may be feelings many other students have, like not being listened to, so we can work with culture and climate issues so you can have respectful conversations about hard stuff we disagree on.”

Baker said he hopes to make UNM a “shining light for the rest of the country and the world for how a 21st-century research institution should operate” in terms of diversity.

“It will show the rest of the country how to build on the strength of diversity, and the issues that we are facing and how they are solved will become a model for the rest of the country,” he said. “We are on the forefront of the diversification of America and need to model how to use the asset of diversity to solve the complex problems we face as a society.”

Baker said that, as UNM president, he would facilitate “transformational learning experiences” that would allow students and faculty to get better acquainted with other cultures and increase graduation rates for minority students at UNM.

“When faculty go out into communities, they come back transformed,” he said. “It helps them to understand that the Native American kid that can’t read is coming from a different world.”

Baker said he will work to improve retention rates at UNM, especially minority retention rates. In fact, during his tenure as University of Idaho provost since 2005 Baker increased freshmen retention rates by 8 percentage points to 81 percent as part of his “strategic academic plan.”

Baker dealt with budget cuts in Idaho by dropping 35 degree programs, reorganizing the university’s departments and even asking for a lower salary for himself. He turned down an offer of an average provost salary of $300,000, and asked for $190,000 instead.

“I negotiated my salary down, which is an odd thing to do, but I felt it was an important signal to the university,” he said.