Editor,
I wonder if President David Schmidly and the regents read the newspapers or watch TV news. As I was reading the Daily Lobo story on how poor UNM is and how it needs to freeze workers' salaries and hiring, I saw a TV story on how UNM is getting ready to spend $60 million for renovations to The Pit. Plus, numerous bonds were just passed for all kinds of hospital expansions.
I guess the main message the regents and Schmidly wanted to pass along to us peasants is that in this time of economic crisis, some things are more important than others. We all have to make priority lists in hard times.
For the CEOs at UNM, it is maintaining the corporate salaries of the top administrators and top faculty along with their sports complex. But as for the rank-and-file worker and adjunct faculty who make the school run, forget about any kind of raise to help with the cost of living. The elites and entertainment come first. Wasn't The Pit just renovated a few years ago for a lot of money anyway? Something seems out of control here.
One has to realize that the regents and Schmidly are about as honest and straightforward as our governor. He is the one who always says he is happy running our state and never had aspirations to be president or to work in far-off Washington. I bet his cell phone bill has a lot of calls into the Barack Obama camp office just to stay in touch, but according to him, he's not really looking for a job out of state.
The governor's latest bit of wisdom has been as an economic crisis soothsayer, spending the state's money like the wind while everyone else saw the fire raging through the hedge funds. A year ago, he had a big chunk of the state retirement funds moved into the risky hedge-fund market when everyone else was getting out. No doubt there were friendly counter-offers made then in his shaping up for a run for the White House.
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Together these elites are ripping our fine school and state apart for all they can get before they jump ship. This is all just another example of why we in the grassroots need accountability in the governance of UNM and the state. At least with a democratically elected Board of Regents and an ability to recall our governors, we might have a better chance than with what we have presently with this gang of anti-worker corporate thieves. The Legislature could give us this option in the January session if folks would raise their voices to them now.
Robert L. Anderson
Daily Lobo reader
