Editor,
In the past couple months, we've seen articles in the Daily Lobo outlining reduced faculty numbers in chemistry and mathematics, the administration's reallocation of $50,000 from the Daily Lobo and, several months ago, the outlining of how much administrator salaries have increased in just the past few years, followed by how the budget was mishandled earlier this year, causing money allocated for certain academic department operating funds to be put elsewhere.
Considering UNM President David Schmidly's background and résumé, these problems are not of any surprise to me. I've seen the results of the pathetic leadership and management of Schmidly firsthand. If the University is really interested in making UNM a better brand, paying incompetent and unqualified administrators exorbitant salaries for unnecessary positions at the expense of the students and professors needed to teach courses is simply wrong. About the only good thing they've decided to do is look at GPA requirements for admission. You improve the image of the University by finding more outside funding for graduate studies, developing new programs that are on the cutting edge, hiring qualified faculty and keeping the best faculty from leaving. In all those areas Schmidly has been a complete failure. It may only be a matter of time before his continued mistakes cost him more than a group of unhappy faculty, staff and students.
James Hulka
UNM student
