Editor,
Did everyone read President David Schmidly's e-mail that was sent Monday? No? Well, I don't blame you. It's hard to take anything he says seriously, especially if you witnessed his red-faced antics at the economic forum he hosted for students, staff and faculty last month.
Still, now and then, I read through his e-mails instead of automatically deleting them from my inbox along with the various unsolicited marketing e-mails that find their way into my UNM inbox. I read through the first few paragraphs with my skeptical heart aflutter, thinking, "Yeah, he's talking about money. I'm sure he'll screw up somewhere." Then I got to this line: "We will indefinitely freeze executive compensation of the president, executive vice presidents and Main Campus vice presidents, including salaries, allowances and deferred compensation." After reading it, I thought, "Shoot, I may have to adjust some of my dislike of this guy as he's actually willing to relinquish some of his money, if not his power." This thought was quickly dashed away when I read Schmidly's next line: "We will develop a comprehensive University-wide policy on deferred compensation, which we will submit to the UNM Board of Regents at the April 2009 regular meeting." This line set me back on the habitual, comfortable path of disregarding the words that come out of Schmidly's mouth, pen or computer account.
Why? Notice the words "deferred compensation" and to whom Schmidly will present this mystifying topic. Here's how I interpret this part of Schmidly's message: He will meet with the regents in order to make sure that while his and his VPs' bonuses are on hold for this year, they will receive their full bonuses/raises in the future, including the money they sacrificed this year. Thus, he's sacrificing a bonus this year in hopes that the regents will give him the whole wad of cash in a large, nicely wrapped bundle in the years to come. And, boy, you better believe the regents will meet him with open arms and a fat UNM checkbook.
And, you know, I'd even consider agreeing to this if all UNM employees receive "deferred compensation" in future years. It could work like this: Many of us only got a 2 percent raise this year when we were hoping for a 5 percent raise. Well, let's defer the additional 3 percent we didn't get this year to next year's raise. That way we could add 3 percent onto the 5 percent we're hoping for next year. An 8 percent raise would be great. And if we don't get anything next year, maybe it can be deferred to the year after, meaning we'd all get a raise of nearly 13 percent in a few years. No, you say? The regents just wouldn't agree to that, you say? Well, they just might agree to a similarly sweet package for Schmidly and his buddies.
Hey, maybe my interpretation of Schmidly's "deferred compensation" is all wrong. But he'll have to give me more details in order to convince me otherwise. I'll wait for his next e-mail with my fingers crossed.
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Sam Roth
UNM staff
