Editor,
Reading the recent letters about President David Schmidly and his hiring of numerous vice presidents as well as his seeming interest in athletics over academics brought two things to my mind.
On the issue of hiring multiple vice presidents for vaguely defined duties and huge salaries, I recalled the 1987 film "Wall Street." During the now famous "Greed is good" speech, Gordon Gekko, portrayed by Michael Douglas, pointed out a very similar issue: A paper company of which he was the single largest stockholder had 33 vice presidents, all earning more than $200,000 per year; each had little actual equity risk in the company and vague responsibilities.
In the film, it seems as if having 33 vice presidents caused the company to be maxed out in debt while profits and share prices fell. At UNM, tuition and taxes will go up. Meanwhile, education becomes simply a pastime between collecting bribes in exchange for the latest public contract. After all, David Harris, one of these vice presidents who earns as much as the actual U.S. president, is a central person of interest in the latest pay-to-play soap opera engulfing New Mexico.
On the issue of athletics, anyone who knows me knows I am a proponent of selling off the "revenue sports" to their primary beneficiaries, the NFL and NBA. Major college sports are another example of public cash used to offset private investment costs and therefore subsidize private profits. My primary viewpoint is by selling them off á la Major League Baseball farm teams, the school sheds a lot of expenses like travel, equipment and scholarships. It would also eliminate the cheating and grade manipulation prevalent in college sports.
In turn, the state continues to derive revenues via land/ground leases and a share of concessions and luxury seat revenues, as The Pit and University Stadium are state property.
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But, being somewhat open-minded, it might be fair to ask, What percentage of college sports revenue at UNM is reinvested back into the University? If so, do these revenues defer tuition raises and allow for staff/faculty pay raises? These are questions that merit some examination. While I consider myself to be somewhat of a market-oriented nutcase with respect to these publicly subsidized modern-day Roman games, I also am willing to examine other facets of the matter. In the meantime, have a great day and great semester in the Bill Richardson Arcade, where you pay or don't play.
Brandon Curtis
UNM alumnus
