Editor,
Between 1891 and 2017 the University of New Mexico has never had a female president!
Chaouki T. Abdallah 2017–2016, Robert Frank 2012–2016, David James Schmidly 2007–2012, David Harris 2006–2007, Louis Caldera 2003–2006, Chris Garcia–2003, William C. Gordon 1998–2002, Richard Peck 1990–1998, Gerald May 198–1990, Tom Farer 1985–1986, John Perovich 1982–1984, William Eugene Davis 1975–1982, Ferrel Heady 1968–1975, Thomas Popejoy 1948–1968, John Wernette 1945–1948, James Zimmerman 1927–1944, David Hill 1919–1927, David Boyd 1912–1919, Edward Gray 1909–1912, William George Tight 1902–1909, Clarence Herrick 1897–1901 Elias Sleeper Stover 1891–1897.
A woman could really fix up this dump! It’s damn hard to believe, that in over one hundred years, there hasn’t been a single woman qualified for this job.
The Acting/Interim UNM President, Chaouki T. Abdallah is being paid $315,087, the full President’s salary. Fair enough, he’s doing the work, as UNM Provost Abdallah made $286,443. Abdullah stated in a Community Town Hall earlier this year that when a UNM Staff employee takes on the additional tasks and duties of employees who retired, or were not replaced, they were compensated fairly. In 2015 my UNM salary was $28,822.92. In 2016 my salary was $27,508.80. Same job — actually, in 2016, I was doing more! Since 2003 employer-based health coverage premiums have increased 89 percent! #ThanksObama! Apparently to succeed in higher education, one just needs to be really proficient in B.S.!
“Chaouki has done an excellent job,” UNM Board of Regents President Rob Doughty said. He said he sees his role as focusing on the school’s academic mission, its financial health and “campus climate” issues like “free” speech! Abdullah, in turn, praised former UNM Athletics VP, Paul Krebs, who retired after the story about UNM paying $39,000 for a UNM Lobo Fundraising Trip to Trump Turnberry in Scotland!
“I thank Paul Krebs for his outstanding leadership of UNM athletics, His tenure will go down as the most productive/successful in school history.”
The UNM Athletics Dept is currently under multiple state audits and investigations, due to a plethora of shade, including the mysterious loss of $63,000 in PCard funds and annual deficits, as far as the eyes can see!
Chaouki has done a terrible job when it comes to making sound financial decisions. Earlier this year Abdallah was bullied by the reactionary ABQ Journal into waiving a $3,000 security fee for Milo Yiannopoulos. When the Conservative Action Committee dropped Milo as its keynote speaker for CPAC after his comments about man/boy love surfaced, you didn’t hear UNM Young Republicans whining about his free speech. Freedom comes with responsibility. Thanks to REAL NEWS journalists like Marisa DeMarco from KUNM who filed the requisite FOIA requests, this FUBAR event ended up costing UNM $81,000! It’s remarkable that the Daily Lobo or ABQ Journal won’t cover this part of the story.
This comes at the same time UNM claims it is saving $79,000 by switching employees from smartphones to Obama phones! UNM has cut its workforce by $669,000, including $200,000 in higher Admin/staffing, $551,000 in food spending and $640,000 in travel. In stark contrast to the austerity budget cuts in this failed state, the Domenici Building on North Campus cost nearly $30,000,000!
Imagine if UNM invested in human capital as much as in capital projects?
“We the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”
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Brian Fejer
Former UNM Staff
