Editor,
There’s been some commentary about whether UNM is a good university.
To decide that, we have to first decide what its job really is.
If our job is to give a college education to every child in the state who wants one, we need to focus on recruiting, retaining, and graduating undergraduates, with programs to help those who need it adapt to college life.
We need to convince the state Legislature that giving every child a college education is a goal worthy of being fully funded.
If our job is to prepare the young people of New Mexico for success in the wider world, we have to divert some of our energy into cooperation with T-VI and other vocational programs. We have to work with the high schools and persuade them that we have this goal in common.
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We have to develop, set, and maintain objective standards of performance, and institute programs to help underprepared students to meet those standards — and convince them that they can meet them.
The money and energy for this would probably have to come out of recruiting. If, on the other hand, our job is to be “Harvard on the Rio Grande,” then all the programs mentioned above are merely trimmings, and the undergraduates, means to an end.
In a world of limited resources, you can’t have everything.
Your call, UNM.
Patricia Mathews,
UNM Mailing Systems
