UNM should reconsider its mission on education

Editor,

I want to reply to Austin Duus' letter published in the Daily Lobo on Thursday, specifically to the following quotation: "Remember Richard Berthold? He was the UNM professor who told a class of freshmen on Sept. 11, 2001: 'Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote.' In his defense, he has sincerely apologized. Regardless of his politics, a database author query yielded no original articles he authored in a peer-reviewed journal since 1978. Yet, he finished 29 years as a faculty member at UNM when he was finally pressured to retire."

While the rest of his article was good, I wanted to ask what does having articles featured in peer-reviewed journals prove? That the man can write a whole lot of sanctimonious gibberish that means nothing to anybody except people who read and review these journals? Berthold prided himself on the fact that his mission was education, not self-aggrandizement, by being published numerous times in some journal he knew only other academics would read. What would being featured in these ivory-tower publications tell me about the man's grasp of classical history?

UNM has its priorities backward. Instead of focusing on what should be the institution's primary mission, undergraduate education, the impetus has been on research. Let me ask a question: What does research actually produce for the University? Can someone answer that question without a boatload of dissembling and half-truths? How does research improve the quality of undergraduate education at UNM?

If someone can provide a direct answer, I'd be halfway happy.

Also, does UNM have what it takes to be a research university? This University does not have a large endowment that is funded by old money, which is the case with many Atlantic seaboard colleges. UNM does not have a student body population that exceeds 30,000 at any given time, which is also a factor in many research universities in lieu of large endowments.

I do agree with the author that UNM does need to consider raising its admission standards. But, by the same token, UNM needs to consider what its main mission truly is and that should be undergraduate education.

Brandon Curtis

UNM alumnus