by Jamie Koch
UNM regents president
David Schmidly is the right man in the right place, and that place is as the incoming president of UNM. He takes over an institution that has made remarkable strides in recent years. The University is on an aggressive construction and renewal program, as well as planning for a future campus in Rio Rancho to handle growth and demand.
As president of the Board of Regents, I understand better than most the challenges that await our new president. And it is because of the nature of those challenges - attracting our best and brightest New Mexico graduates, retaining our freshmen, improving our graduation rate, strengthening our graduate schools and supporting excellent research and teaching - that we regents determined that our next president had to have a strong foundation in academics. The faculty members of UNM, which have always campaigned for an academic leader as president, were right to do so. We listened to their voices as we searched for the best person to run UNM at this critical time.
Much is in place that will help Schmidly in his new job. An innovative $125 million institutional bond issue is accelerating the University's facilities improvement and expansion. The $233 million hospital expansion - the largest single building construction project in the state - will serve future patient care needs for New Mexico. Equally important is the newly secured financial stability at UNM Hospital and the School of Medicine. The $9 million realized from the sale of 3,000 acres in Mesa del Sol is being pumped into UNM's student-centered enterprise, while the University retains a 15 percent partnership in the project - future revenues for future needs. An ongoing administrative consolidation that started last year will save money to enhance UNM's core academic mission. An annual budget summit exercise brings together the UNM constituencies for thoughtful and transparent consideration of how the University spends its dollars.
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The University's financial picture is stable, with the credit for that going to David Harris, who stepped in as interim president and is now our chief operating and chief financial officer. Still, we all know that more work remains. Our president will be charged with taking New Mexico's flagship university and shoring up its academics.
We are fortunate that a farsighted Legislature made Lottery Scholarships available so that students who wished to could attend the University. For the first time, 75 percent of UNM's eligible New Mexico freshmen qualified for the scholarship. About 95 percent of students who have this scholarship for seven to eight semesters graduate.
Improving retention and our graduation rate is one of Schmidly's most pressing challenges. UNM's six-year graduation rate, at nearly 43 percent, is simply unacceptable.
We also thank students - who we recognize are paying higher tuition rates these days - for their contribution in ensuring the University we all love has the resources it needs to get the job done. Faculty and staff, too long left behind in salary and benefits, are starting to pull ahead - they've received a 15 percent salary increase over the past three years.
Schmidly knows what needs to be done because he has done it. In his most recent post, as CEO and president of Oklahoma State University, Schmidly launched a master-plan initiative calling for more that $826 million in projects over the next five years. He knows how to partner a university with economic development and how essential a university is in powering an area's job and
intellectual growth.
He has walked the walk on improving diversity and hired two female vice presidents at OSU, one of whom is Latino, and a second who is African-American.
Before starting his first official day on the job, Schmidly is seeking to establish a Division of Institutional Diversity, responsible for University initiatives to increase and maintain diversity and equal opportunity for all associated with UNM. With a vice president at the helm of the division, Schmidly is making clear that diversity is essential to a great university.
As the only Carnegie Very High Research University designated as Hispanic-serving, and the only one with more than 30 percent underrepresented minority students, UNM is unique. It should be a national leader in issues related to minority education and research. Money is being set aside to help recruit and hire more minority faculty members, even before Schmidly is sworn in as president. He wants the first of these hires to start in 2008.
Other initiatives already suggested by our incoming president include more money to recruit National Merit Scholars as well as provide need-based scholarships. He knows that some students will need help, and he's committed to making sure they succeed - even if the assistance needs to start as early as ninth grade, in something as essential as showing students what tough courses they should take to succeed in college.
This is a man who understands what universities mean to their students, their faculty and their communities. He chose UNM as much as we chose him, and now that he's here, we regents are ready to back away and watch him work. He has his goals, and we are confident in his ability to meet them.
