Daily Lobo: What do you think is the most important issue facing higher education?
Robert McGrath: Within New Mexico and here at UNM, I think it's the graduation rate. The six-year graduation rate has to go up. I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to work on that if selected for this important role.
Nationally, I think one of the real challenges is maintaining U.S. competitiveness in higher education. We have had the luxury over the years of being the nation that provides the highest quality of education in the world. If we look at what's happening to the rankings of our high school graduates, we are slipping. I think we're ranked 47th out of 100 nations in science and math education.
We can't afford, as a nation, to be losing our innovative edge. In terms of sheer numbers, we will be swamped. I participated in the U.S.-China summit on university design. What we learned at that summit was the plans by our Chinese colleagues to be establishing 100 new universities over the next 20 years. They're talking about mega-universities, with enrollments of 80,000 and 100,000 students.
In terms of sheer volume, these folks are going to be training many, many more scientists, engineers, social scientists, medical professionals. They are going to be doing this in a big, big way.
Our only hope of staying at the forefront is to be absolutely excellent in what we do. How can we continue to provide that excellence if our high school preparedness is slipping?
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DL: How are you qualified to run an institution of UNM's size and diversity?
RM: I feel pretty comfortable with it. It is a wonderful opportunity, but I feel comfortable with having a great deal of experience in working with large and complicated institutions. If you see my background, I basically have been - I have some experience base both with industry and with national laboratories and with academic institutions in providing administrative leadership in each of those realms.
DL: What, if anything, would you do to prevent tuition
increases?
RM: Those are challenges. Tuition increase can be mitigated through additional state support and working with the community and the leadership in Santa Fe. I think, realistically, it will be hard to eliminate tuition increases, but I think it's something we have to put a tremendous amount of effort into to minimize and control tuition increases.
DL: Do you think longevity is important in a University
president?
RM: I do. I think it's very important. I think it's important for the stability of programs. I think it's important for the self-perception and the commitment.
DL: How could UNM be sure that you would be here for a reasonable amount of time?
RM: They can work with me toward mutual successes and make sure that all of us are happy. We all want to have jobs that we enjoy and find very satisfying. I would hope that we're so successful in some of the things that we want to do here that where else would you want to be?
DL: If you're chosen, what would you do to keep faculty and staff happy to be working here?
RM: I think two things. One is teamwork, and one is recognition. People enjoy making a contribution that they can feel proud of, and they enjoy receiving recognition for that contribution when it's made.
DL: How are you prepared to balance the interests of various groups at UNM, such as faculty, staff, students and the surrounding community?
RM: That's something that I have experience in. All of my administrative jobs have had that as a component of the activity. I feel comfortable in being able to do that here. It's communication. A lot of it is communication and trust. You can't have trust without good
communication.
