Staff and faculty are concerned about layoffs, despite assurance from the administration that no one will lose his or her job due to the economic crisis.
"I spoke with Regent (Jamie) Koch and told him we were concerned about layoffs," said Loyola Chastain, Staff Council president.ˇ"He assured me there would be no layoffs. We really want to believe him."
But morale is at an all-time low, a survey of staff members found.
A Comment Report conducted Dec. 5 asked employees what changes they would make if they were in charge of the University.
Chastain said 102 staff members replied, citing concerns about the 14 vice presidents at UNM and their high salaries, understaffing in several departments, and job security.
"I would ensure that jobs are secure and work toward the financial stability of UNM at large," one post read.
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Another responder wished there was more open communication about job security and layoffs.
However, Provost Suzanne Ortega has assured staff and faculty that one of President David Schmidly's top priorities is protecting employees' jobs.
But some administrators are doubtful UNM can avoid job cuts.
"There is no question that those are priorities, but it doesn't mean that you can always realize your priorities," said Howard Snell, Faculty Senate president.ˇ"No matter what your priorities are, keeping tuition affordable and protecting jobs can be done, but that doesn't mean that we're still going to have the part-time instructors that we need and that we're still going to have the supplies that we need."
UNM is not the only University taking drastic measures as a result of the financial crisis. An article in the Harvard Crimson reported the oldest University in the country is freezing salary raises for all faculty and nonunion staff members. Harvard will also put a hold on most searches for tenure-track and tenured faculty.
Snell said the key to overcoming the financial crisis is to keep employees.
"We've expressed many times to the provost that we don't believe that the financial crisis should be met by laying off faculty," he said. "One of our major concerns at the moment is actually with the inability to hire replacement faculty for people who have retired."
Ortega said exceptions have been made in UNM's hiring freeze.
"Since institution of the pause-and-hold strategy, we have not seen a frivolous request for an exemption," she said in an e-mail. "Consequently, within Academic Affairs, we have made exceptions in a very small number of cases."
