In light of their Feb. 25 no-confidence vote, faculty members are calling for a re-examination of the shared-governance model UNM uses for crucial policy decisions.
Richard Wood, president of the Faculty Governance Committee, said his constituents would like to see faculty members play a greater role in decision-making in every aspect of UNM's governance.
"What we're looking for is faculty representation at all levels - from the regents to the regents' facilities and finance committee to the key decision-making components of the president's office," he said.
The problem with the corporate model
Faculty Senate President-elect Doug Fields said the faculty and administration have divergent opinions about the direction the University should go in and that progress can only be made through collaboration.
"The shared-governance model with the Faculty Senate working together with the administration only works if people want it to work," he said. "People in charge really have to have a shared vision of wanting that government structure to work, and my feeling is that the current leadership and the Board of Regents together with the president of the University have a different view of the value of shared governance."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Wood added that having educators in policy-making decisions is not a new idea but that the administration needs to reverse the trend of running UNM like a business.
"There's nothing radical about (shared governance)," he said. "That's the typical way that universities are run. What's happened is that in the last about six years or so is a shift to where the key people in a lot of those decisions are folks from outside the educational side of the university."
Change by petition
At New Mexico Military Institute, a four-year high school and two-year junior college in Roswell, a group of alumni were concerned that the governance model in place was not accountable to the concerns of the community.
During the four-year tenure of Superintendent David R. Ellison, attrition rates at the 800-student school rose to 29 percent, the average GPA fell from 2.71 to 2.56, and the average ACT score fell from 23.1 to 21.8, according to information provided by Keenan Pickett, a 1977 alumnus of NMMI.
Pickett said the situation at NMMI is analogous to that of UNM because they are both public institutions.
"Even though (the regents) are held to the state statutes, they basically don't answer to anyone because they are appointed.. State institutions really have no choice," Pickett said. "As far as (UNM), I think the only way you can really do it is continue public outcry and (outcry) from faculty, alumni and students."
Pickett circulated a petition in June calling for the removal of the Board of Regents at NMMI, citing their poor record of accountability, poor administrative hiring practices and neglect of duty.
Because regents can only be removed from office by the governor or state Supreme Court, Pickett said he started the petition to raise public awareness.
"I felt that the direction that the Board of Regents was making toward making changes that we needed in the school ... was wrong," Pickett said. "That's why I started the petition. I knew full well that we would never get to the point of approaching the Supreme Court with action on them. The whole point of the petition was to gain leverage against the board of regents."
After Pickett's petition received 1,000 views and 12 signatures, regents Jesus Salazar and Bill Armstrong stepped down; also, Superintendent Ellison opted not to seek re-election for the 2009-10 term.
"I can't say that it was due to my petition," Pickett said. "We looked at various ways of trying to convince (the regents) that change needed to happen, and my petition was just one of the ways."
The problem with government appointment
Fields said changes instituted to the state Higher Education Department might not fix the shared-governance structure at state universities.
He said the regent positions have become overly politicized and that some of the problems UNM is seeing are a direct result of Gov. Bill Richardson's abuse of his constitutional right to hand-pick regents.
"He has basically appointed his friends and political contributors to the board," Fields said. "So, I'm not so certain it's a structural problem rather than a certain individual personality issue in this case."
Richardson's office declined to comment for this article.
Reed Dasenbrock, cabinet secretary for the Department of Higher Education, said Richardson has instituted some changes that benefit state universities.
The creation of Dasenbrock's position in 2005 has given New Mexico a governance system that differs from all other higher education systems in the country, he said.
"We are the only state where there is a cabinet-level secretary of higher education parallel to a cabinet-level secretary of public education," Dasenbrock said. "The governor's intention in doing that was, I think, to try to do two things. One was to make sure that there was a statewide place where higher education policy could be developed, and the other was to make sure that public education and higher education were in a position where they could talk to each other."
Fields said the problem with the shared-governance structures at universities throughout the state is out of control yet no one has looked to Richardson for answers.
"There are political appointees everywhere - as far as I know, in most places - but it has never been abused to the point that it has been abused in New Mexico," he said.
Dasenbrock said that if Senate Joint Memorial 25 - a bill now on the floor of the Senate - is passed, it would require the New Mexico Higher Education Department to study and compare itself to the higher education systems of other states. This would ensure that the department has studied the pros and cons of how other systems work before the next legislative session begins, he said.
Change by amendment
Dasenbrock said regent governance is written in the state's constitution.
Changes can be made to the governance structure, but those changes would have to be proposed, go through legislation, and be voted on during general elections before taking effect, he said.
"The Constitution has been amended across time, so for example, a few years ago - maybe 15 years ago - it was amended to allow a student regent, but it requires a constitutional amendment to change that structure," Dasenbrock said.
Wood said the balance of power at UNM could reach an equilibrium if a faculty member sat on the Board of Regents, but that process requires an amendment to the state constitution - a process that can take many months.
"That's a slow process. That requires a constitutional amendment," Wood said. "In the meantime, there's a lot we can do. The regents can appoint a faculty member to sit on the facilities and finance committee."
Regents President Jamie Koch said in a news conference after the faculty meeting that faculty members have been appointed to regent subcommittees in the past, but they have never brought forward any motions.
